Sage
by vecus saravan
Summary: Another what if story of jiraiya taking naruto's training seriously. just read the damn thing.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer; I don't own death note**

 **Yep, another "Jiraiya trains Naruto seriously" fanfic, this one of course with a little more twists and turns. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the fics in which Naruto has some grand epiphany of how everything in his life is fucked up and starts acting smarter than Minato or Itachi out of the blue. I want to write a fic that shows Naruto's growth in intelligence and power realistically and believable. I hope I don't disappoint.**

 **Anywhere please enjoy…**

 **DISCOVERIES AND REALISATIONS**

Frustration, that's what he was feeling at the moment, frustration. Naruto had left konoha with Pervy sage on a training trip about two weeks ago. He could still remember just how excited he was at the thought of 3 years of nothing but serious training and learning killer jutsu, he would definitely be a step closer to being hokage after this, hell granny Tsunade would probably even give him hat seeing as how strong he had gotten in such a short period of time.

But boy was he disappointed, they had done nothing so far but waste time on Jiraiya's perverted books and so called "research". Naruto had asked for a scroll of some jutsu he could work on but the sannin just insisted that he continue to work on his chakra control.

Naruto was really losing patience and the fact that it took 2 weeks to get to this point was quiet something for anyone that knew him. He looked at his master who was walking at such a slow leisurely pace with a carefree look on his face, the spiky blond boy grit his teeth at that.

How was he going to get strong enough to bring Sasuke back or even be Hokage for that matter if he wasn't being trained?

How was he even going to impress Sakura-chan or defeat those Akatsuki bastards if he was still weak?

He was supposed to be getting stronger at the moment not waste his time escorting his sensei to peep on naked, unsuspecting women. He didn't doubt for a second that Sasuke-teme was probably getting way stronger him now.

Finally, he's frustration of the better of him, "You know what! I can't take this anymore! Hey Pervy Sage, what's the big idea? Why the hell aren't we training already?" he shouted his tone dripping with agitation and righteous fury.

The toad sannin stopped walking, looked back at the aggravated boy and responded;

"You are not ready."

And then continued walking without a care in the world

The jinchurikki pulled his hair in frustration, "what the hell do you mean am not ready you damn perv? If I wasn't ready, then why did you take me with you in the first place?"

Honestly, he would have made better progress with Kakashi-sensei at this stage, well… that was if he was in the mood to teach, damn he has some really lazy teachers.

Jiraiya abruptly stopped walking and looked back at him with a serious look on his face, a good five minutes passed with nothing but awkward silence accompanying it.

Naruto was beginning to feel creeped out by the sannin's piercing gaze and so asked;

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Sit down naruto"

"Uh… why do want me to-

"Sit… Down"

The toad sage said those words with the commanding power naruto had rarely heard from him and thus felt doing as told without any questions was the right way to go.

Jiraiya sat across from him with his hands folded and a serious look plastered on his face, he looked at his ignorant godson and sighed

"Naruto when I say "you are not ready", I don't mean physically, I am talking about mentally. I don't think you're mentally ready to be trained seriously naruto." He said in a firm tone

The jinchurikki looked at him with curiosity,

"What do you mean I'm not ready mentally Ero-sennin?" he asked

"Naruto you are so obsessed with wanting to live in this imaginary world of black and white where everything is just as simple as it looks, you don't take time to think about what the reality is. You constantly ignore things that are right in front of in search of your own fantasies and that's something I am not going to tolerate from any apprentice of mine." The sannin explained

Seeing the blonde's confused look still on his face, the toad sage decided to elaborate further;

"Alright, let's talk about your teammates for a minute, starting with your precious Sasuke-chan"

When he saw the young boy adopt an apprehensive look, Jiraiya couldn't help but sigh again, 'this boy and his bonds' he thought

"Tell me, why do want to get back so much?"

"Well, because 1; he's my friend, 2; I promised Sakura-chan that I would and 3; he's lost and he needs someone to bring him back to the good side" the blue eyed blonde quickly responded with conviction

"Do you think he ever felt the same towards you and your other teammate?"

"Of course he does"

"Oh really? You once me told me that you wanted to surpass Sasuke because he always said that you were the dead last and thus would get in his way right?" Jiraiya asked and when he saw the younger boy nodding his head in confirmation, continued;

"So Sasuke didn't like you when you were strong but when showed progress and growth, he challenged you to a fight to put your down and in your rightful place as dead last."

"That's not exactly what happen-

"Why did he leave?"

"He felt he wasn't getting stronger in the hidden leaf and that Orochimaru-teme offered him the power that he craved"

"Not getting stronger?" Jiraiya questioned stroking his chin with a bit of wonder and curiosity on his face.

"Did you know that the **chidori is** one of the most powerful a-ranked jutsu in the elemental nations, an assassination jutsu capable of destroying an opponent with one perfect shot?" the toad sage asked the boy

"Yeah… I know just how powerful it is" the jinchurikki said holding his chest, he still remembers just how it felt to have the lightening jutsu drove into his chest, sometimes he even dreamt about it.

"And I hear he was taught many **fire** jutsu as well as having a fully matured sharingan right?"

"Yes"

"Are you seriously telling me that having all those jutsu in his arsenal plus more in just the space of six months did not make Sasuke one of the most powerful if not the most powerful gennin in the elemental nations?" asked the sannin

"Well, er… he wants to be strong enough to defeat his brother"

"And Orochimaru is going to train him so well that he will be able to defeat an S-rank shinobi within the space of 6 months?"

"Damn it Ero-sennin, you don't understand. He-

"NO, YOU don't understand. You claim this person is your 'friend' and that he is just 'lost', but look at the facts naruto; everything points to the contrary" said Jiraiya in a serious tone

"He doesn't like you when you are weak but then resents your growth. Nobody in the village told Sasuke not to chase after his revenge or even refused to train him for it, but for some reason he decided that there was no value in staying with those that cared about him and would help him achieve his goals. He went and offered himself to a very dangerous criminal that is known for performing disgusting experiments on helpless people. How sure are you that he won't follow the same footsteps?"

"Hey! Ero-sennin I get that you don't like Sasuke very much but that doesn't give you the right to compare him to the likes of Orochimaru. Sasuke is different, yes he is obsessed with revenge but he is not going to hurt helpless people just because of it. You don't know, we were trained together and even fought together so I know that Sasuke is not going to turn into some demented freak ok" the blonde jinchurikki said angrily defending his friend while glaring at his teacher

How dare Jiraiya say such things about Sasuke, he wasn't perfect yes but that didn't mean he was a bad person. He honestly didn't like where this conversation was going.

The toad sage gave a humorless chuckle; he was really amused at this kid's stupidity sometimes. He definitely didn't get his intelligence from minato that much was certain.

"Naruto, I was Orochimaru's teammate; I fought with him, fought against him, we played together, trained together, ate together. If anything, the third preferred Orochimaru as a student more than Tsunade and I. Orochimaru was the third's prized student" he told his clueless student

The blue eyed jinchurikki's eyes went wide at hearing that. That was the last thing he was expecting to hear, oji-san preferred to train Oro-teme?

 _That's… that's just like Kakashi and Sasuke_

"So you finally understand now. Orochimaru was my best friend Naruto; never in my life did I imagine that he would turn out the way he did. So even though you don't want to hear this, I will tell you because you NEED to hear this" he moved closer and put his right hand on Naruto's shoulder

"Sasuke put a **chidori** in your chest Naruto and you and I both know that if it wasn't for the Kyuubi, he would have killed you multiple times in that battle. You, his so-called 'best friend', he was willing to kill just because you got in the way of his revenge, what do you think he'll do to a complete stranger he does not care about just for his revenge?" he said looking straight at the boy

Naruto looked down though unable to find a way to defend his friend, would Sasuke really turn out like Orochimaru? He didn't want to believe such things but…

"But how could I ever be hokage if I can't even save a friend?" naruto asked his master

"Have you ever been at the shinobi cemetery?"

"Er… yeah"

"Do you know how most of those shinobi died?"

"On missions, kakashi-sensei says they are part of a group labeled "KIA" which stands for "killed in action"" he responded

"Well the hokage is the one that sent them all on those missions naruto, sometimes they knew that the chances of survival were minimal and some of those people were friends, relatives or even neighbors of the hokage but they did it anyway. Being Hokage doesn't mean that you can save or protect everybody Naruto, if that's what you think then you better get used to disappointments because it's not possible" explained the legendary shinobi

The younger shinobi continued to look down while thinking about what he has been told, he didn't think he's desire to save would be tested like this before, what was he supposed to do now? He didn't think he was capable of abandoning his "brother' to the wolves but isn't this what Sasuke wanted?

"Look, naruto am not telling to give up on saving your friend, all I'm saying is that you should be careful with the people you want to associate with, just because he's your first friend doesn't mean he's a good person, trust me, I should know."

"So then… what am I supposed to do Ero-sennin?" asked the boy for the first time in his life doubting his own conviction

"Truth be told, that's your choice to make Naruto. I just don't want you to make a choice simply because you choose to be blind yourself to certain things. My advise; think about it long and hard." Replied the white haired man

"Ok"

"Good, now let's talk about your other teammate"

Naruto visibly flinched at hearing that, was he going to get another slap to the face by reality?

"She's the one you claim to "love" right?" asked Jiraiya with an amused look

"Hey I don't claim to love her, I do love Sakura-chan" responded the jinchurikki with an offended look

Jiraiya face palmed his forehead remembering this scene all too well.

AH young love… so simple, so naïve, so stupid.

"Really? Why do you love "Sakura-chan" then?" asked the toad sage with his arms folded

Naruto gave his customary smile at that question, finally something he could easily respond to; he brought his hand up showing Jiraiya all five fingers and then started picking them out as he gave a reason;

"1- she's smart, 2- she's cute, 3- she's strong… er… scratch that… 3- Mmh… she's competitive 4- she's er… she's… damn it, I just love her ok"

Jiraiya laughed at his godson earning a mean glare from him. Damn this scene was all too familiar, he has had this kind of conversation with his sensei Hiruzen Sarutobi way to many times.

"Ok, so there's no concrete reason, you just love her but let me ask you this; do you really think she is right for you Naruto?" he asked his really dense student

"Of course I do, I mean I know she has a thing for Sasuke at the moment but I will make her for in love with me someday" responded the jinchurikki with his confidence back in full force

"It's nice that you're confident about that but that's not what I asked, it's easy to for in love naruto but that doesn't mean the person you love is right for you. I've seen the way she treats you and interacts with you most of the time and truth be told; that's not someone who is interested in you at all" said the sannin sagely

Naruto was deflated once again at hearing that, damn what was wrong with this day? Usually he would dispute anyone challenging his beliefs and capabilities but this time felt different, could it be that his subconscious already knew this but he simply decided to ignore it.

"Naruto nobody is telling you give up on your love, if you feel that your love is real and it's strong enough to handle all the heartbreaks and rejections then by all means; go for it, I know I have. I just don't want you to miss a great opportunity with a great girl that really loves you, you deserve to be happy" the self proclaimed super pervert said trying to cheer up the boy while also giving him some good advice

Naruto stayed quiet looking like he was contemplating saying something but showing a saddened expression that was quiet rare. But after a minute of complete silence he finally decided to voice his thoughts.

"What if… what if nobody will ever love me that way Ero-sennin? What then?" asked the jinchurikki, he was really dreading the idea of living alone all his life with no wife or children, he had spent countless hours thinking about what the future would be like for him. With his situation in the village, it was quite possible that no girl would give him a chance. That was one of the biggest reasons he was fighting so hard to be acknowledged, it wasn't just so that he could be hokage but to also give himself a chance for a better future.

Jiraiya hid a wince when he heard just how discouraged his student was, were this the kid's thoughts when he wasn't putting up a mask or when he was alone? He villagers really did a number on his self esteem, he had never felt more ashamed for abandoning than he did at that moment.

"Don't think about depressing stuff like that naruto, I'm sure there is girl out there who loves or will love you with all their heart"

Naruto snorted at that finding that highly unlikely.

"Oh yeah? Like who?"

"Uh… I don't know, tell me about all the girls that you know very well"

"Huh… er… ok?... well, there's Sakura-chan who we've already spoken about, there's Tenten but I don't know her very well, Ino who is really annoying and very shallow and Hinata who is quiet weird; she's really shy and likes to faint when I'm near her, I think she's sick or something… oh and she also adopted my nindo and even encouraged me to beat her cousin at the chunnin exams so that's pretty cool. Plus sometimes I think she follows me around when she thinks am not paying attention, really weird" replied the clueless dumb blonde

(0_0)

(0_0)

"What? Why are looking at me like that?"

Jiraiya merely slapped his forehead again in exasperation, god this kid is dense. Minato was too, but never this dense.

"So let me get this straight; this Hinata faints only when around you, never around other boys?"

Naruto nods

"She adopted your nindo?"

Nods again

"Gave you the confidence to beat her own cousin?"

Another nod

"And likes to follow you around?"

He nodded again still clueless

Jiraiya mumbled something about dense clueless blondes and said;

"Tell me something, when you take all those facts and really really think about them, what sort of conclusion do you come up with on Hinata?"

"Um… I don't-

"Really think about it Naruto" said the gallant in a firm tone

Naruto had no idea what his sensei was going on about but it didn't hurt to try and think about it. Ok, so Hinata is a pretty shy girl, everybody knows that, she is able to talk with almost everybody except him, she stutters a lot and faints when he's around, still weird, but why him though? Why not Sasuke?

Wait a minute… in the academy when there was a rumor going around that Sasuke liked girls with long hair Hinata kept hers short. She never tried to get Sasuke's attention like every other girl, but that didn't mean much, it could be that she was too shy to talk to him. But then again, she always seemed to pay more attention to him and she never laughed at him when he failed to execute a jutsu.

She likes to blush a lot and even tried to help him cheat during the chunnin exams. She adopted his own personal nindo and even encouraged him before the chunnin exams when she should have been rooting for the other side. What about all those times on missions when she-

After about five minutes of the blonde really thinking hard about something probably for the first time in his life, he jerked like he just discovered something HUGE

"HINATA LIKES ME?! WHAT THE HELL?! BUT THAT'S… HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? HOW DID I NOT EVEN NOTICE THAT? WAIT A MINUTE… DOES THAT MEAN THAT SHE HAS LOVED ME SINCE THE ACADEMY?!" he exclaimed in his usually high voice unable to believe it.

"Probably"

The boy eyed his master trying to find any sort of falsehood but instead found nothing but sincerity. He abruptly stood up, grabbed his backpack and started off towards in the direction of Konoha shouting;

"I have to get to the bottom of this"

Though he never got far because Jiraiya grabbed him by the head and turned him around saying; "oh yeah? And what are you going to say to Hinata when she confirms it I wonder?"

"I will… er… it's just that…first I discover that my best friend is a potential criminal, then it turns out that the girl I've thought I was in love with is bad for me and now this. If I missed things that are so obvious then what else did I miss that was important" replied the Kyuubi jinchurikki feeling frustrated with himself

He knew that he was never the sharpest kunai in the pouch this was even annoying the hell out of him. How was possible to be so damn stupid and blind?

"Well, you missed the fact that; you come from a prestigious clan, a **kage bushin** transfers its memories to the original allowing you to pick up things faster and you're the Kyuubi jinchurikki" Jiraiya said wanting to just say them all at the same time and get it over with

Having fully absorbed what he's sensei was telling him, Naruto looked at his teacher with tears almost coming out of his eyes, he looked heartbroken almost as if he had just heard that someone he cared had just died. The blonde had had never looked so downhearted before, everything his teacher had just talked to him about has been right in front of him but he was just too stupid to notice a damn thing.

"Am I… Am I really that stupid?" he asked in an almost broken voice, he honestly didn't feel so confident in himself anymore. No wonder everybody calls him an idiot, he really he is one. How could he be so blind, so dense, so… so stupid?

This time tears did start falling out of his eyes. He has so fixated with his own illusions that he missed the simple fact standing right in front of him, what kind of shinobi was he? What kind of person was he? What kind of Hokage would he be? Did he even deserve to be Hokage? He honestly didn't even know anymore.

Jiraiya looked at his godson getting more dispirited at the minute, he put his hand on the jinchurikki's shoulder once again and said "no, you are not stupid naruto, you-

"YES I AM!" barked Naruto interrupting him, he roughly pushed Jiraiya's hand away from his shoulder.

"I was the dead last at the academy, everyone calls me a knucklehead or just an idiot, I'm so dense that I miss the simple things and weak. Kami I'm weak" he continued his tears freely flowing at this point

"Naruto, calm down-

"Oh please, you and I both know it. Every fight that I have been in, I would have lost or worse died if it wasn't for the Kyuubi. Haku, Neji, Gaara and Sasuke, all of them could have killed me if it wasn't for this damn fox in my gut. "Naruto said laughing sarcastically at the end and running his hands through his hair

"And to think that I have been so cocky about being so strong and being Hokage one day. Ha-ha… am nowhere near as strong as I think I am" he continued

"Naruto, I know you're disappointed in yourself but you have to understand that-

"Ha! Disappointed? Am a fucking joke Jiraiya, a dead last. Am a-

"Naruto Enough! Look I know it's not easy finding out important things about your life like this especially when they were all right in front of you but you have to understand that not all of it is your fault. A lot of people, myself included, played a part in what you're going through. We could have atleast tried to talk to you about these things but we didn't. But trust me, the worst thing you can do in life is looking at the past with resentment and regrets. Instead of whining about it, why don't you think about what you are going to do now that you are no longer ignorant. Focus on the present and future not the past naruto" advised the older, more experienced shinobi

"Ok" naruto replied although he didn't sound so convinced

"look, take some time to think about all the things we've talked about and when your mind is clear; we can start your real training" Jiraiya ordered standing up

"There's a small town nearby, let's hurry up so that we can find a motel to sleep" he said already jumping on trees

 **A FEW DAYS LATER (MOTEL ROOM)**

The last couple of days has been very weird for Jiraiya, not that he was too surprised by it but Naruto had been very quiet ever since their talk. The blonde mostly kept to himself only speaking when spoken to, introspective would be a better way to describe at the moment, a word he never thought he would ever associate with his hyperactive student.

The sannin had given the boy a couple of books to read and he didn't complain or give any sort of childish tantrum, he simply did as told.

He shouldn't be surprised though, naruto had a knack for doing the unexpected and completely surprise his doubters.

The toad sage was just glad that the boy was not looking down on himself, of course his self esteem was still low but the jinchurikki was atleast trying to curb his ignorance to the ground. It was for this reason that Jiraiya had every bit of confidence that it wouldn't take long for his usual confidence to return, perhaps it would even be real confidence and not some mask.

"Hey Ero-sennin, can I ask you something?" Naruto said sparking a conversation for the first time in days whilst looking at the older man

"You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?" asked Jiraiya with mock anger.

When the younger continued to look at him with a blank look on his face, the sannin deflated, mumbling something about disrespectful brats.

"Sure, ask away"

"A few days ago you said that I belonged to a prestigious clan, I didn't ask about it then but now I want to know. Which clan are you talking about?" the blonde asked curiously

"Already paying attention to the important conversations huh? Well good for you, you're learning"

Naruto gave a small smile for the praise

"Well, you see; the spiral symbol on the back of your clothes and konoha shinobi uniforms is the symbol of the uzumaki clan; a powerful, peace loving clan that excelled in the sealing arts and also possessed strong chakra and even stronger life force. They were the only clan in the elemental nations that had their own village, the village hidden in the whirlpools and they were konoha's closest ally that's why we wear their symbol on our backs, to honor their memory" the sannin explained

"Well, what happened to them? How come I've never heard anyone speaking about them?"

"Unfortunately, in this world, while strength is respected it's also feared. The Uzumaki's prowess in fuinjutsu made them really dangerous and a lot of villages felt threatened by them, so they banded together and attacked them and completely destroyed in the second shinobi war."

Naruto couldn't help but frown at that news, what kind of people would attack someone simply because they were stronger than you are? why not just train yourself to be stronger instead?

This line of thought brought Sasuke back to his mind, the uchiha had tried to do the same with him. The minute he showed an increase in strength, Sasuke felt jealous of him and even tried to put him back down. Sasuke could have easily trained harder to reassert himself as the strongest genin on team 7 but he didn't. perhaps he didn't want to be stronger him, maybe he wanted Naruto to be weaker instead.

He still felt the need to save the Uchiha from himself but still, he couldn't but wonder if it was even worth it. He was going to deal with the Sasuke issue that's for sure.

"Listen gaki, am sorry that you lost your clan before you even got to meet them but this should teach you just how cruel the shinobi world really is. Villages do not care about how righteous you are, they only care about strength and how much of it you have. Shinobi villages especially the big five don't like the idea of any small village rivaling their dominance in the elemental nations"

"But… they did nothing wrong to them, how can anybody be that cruel? How can anyone wish to destroy an entire village simply because they're good at something" the jinchurikki said with anger unable to wrap his head around what he has just heard

"That's how it is, sad but true. That's why you need to learn Naruto, you say you want to be hokage right? Then you need to understand this world and how it works if you're going to make any positive difference" the sannin advised wisely

Naruto looked his master for a few seconds looking like he was contemplating asking him something. It seemed that look did not go unnoticed by Jiraiya as he asked

"What is it?"

"Do you really think I can do it, Hokage I mean… do you really think I can be hokage?" the young blonde asked with a bit of hesitation and self-doubt in his voice

Jiraiya looked at his godson with a straight face but inside he couldn't help but feel worried for him, this wasn't like Naruto. Usually if you castigate him for something, he would just shrug it off and swear to do better next time. But this time was different, it was as if he had just discovered that he was living a lie, maybe in some ways he was.

"Yes, I think you all the capabilities in the world to be hokage someday" he answered truthfully

Naruto gave a small smile at him, his heart felt warm due to relief and happiness, this was the first time anybody actually openly believed in him to be Hokage. Sure he has had some people encourage him to do something, but this was actually the first time anybody has said they believed in his dream

He put his hand right where on his heart still smiling, a genuine smile, and looked at his teacher

"Thank you Jiraiya"

The legendary shinobi responded with a smile of his own

"No problem gaki"

"Ya know, this past couple of days I've been thinking a lot about a lot of things and I realized; the only reason I wanted to be hokage in the first place was so that everybody could love and accept me, When I was young, I always saw how everybody in the village talked to, praised and even worshipped oji-san and therefore I decided that I wanted the same, I thought being hokage would get me the same treatment" the blonde said giving a bitter smile thinking about his idiocy

"Ya know, other than protecting the village, I have no idea just what the hokage does" he finished

"What about now?"

"I… I don't know. I guess I just need some more time to think about my life ya know. I want to make sure that what I decide to do in the future is not just because I want to find my own self-worth" he replied

"Good, you have your whole life ahead of you, take all the time you need. Just remember that I'm here for you for whatever you need"

The spiky blonde nodded in response

"Hey, I just realized that you said that my clan had its own village and was destroyed way before I was born, then how did I end up in Konoha?" naruto asked hoping it would finally reveal something about his parents

At that Jiraiya's demeanor changed to nervousness all of the sudden, he knew where this kind of conversation was going, in fact he had been dreading it ever since he met the kid.

"Well… you see… er the since the uzumaki clan were allies of the hidden leaf, they helped each other in everything; war, medical ninjutsu, seals, business and even (cough) jinchurikki"

"What?"

"The first jinchurikki of the Kyuubi, Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the shodaime, was getting old it was only a matter of time before she would eventually die so the Kyuubi needed a new host or it would have broken free. Since the Uzumaki possess strong life force and even stronger chakra, the clan head accepted Konoha's request for a new container and sent his daughter right before the war broke out. She was made the new jinchurikki and then later on in her got married and had you" the toad sage explained

"So you know who they are? My parents I mean; you know who my parents are?" Naruto asked

"Er… yeah, I know who they are." Jiraiya responded scratching his head in the process

"Well, who are they?" the jinchurikki asked with uncontainable excitement in his voice

The self proclaimed super pervert laughed nervously not knowing how his godson will react to his response

"Ha-ha… er… MinatoNamikazeandKushinaUzumaki"

"What? I didn't hear you"

"Your mother was kushina Uzumaki, a very beautiful- you know I just realized, you have some insane pedigree"

"Jiraiya"

The white haired man sighed, he might as well get it over with.

"Your mother is Kushina Uzumaki, a very beautiful, very wild hurricane. Honestly that woman was as scary as she was beautiful. Anyway, your father is someone you know very well, someone the entire elemental nations knew and feared. He's a war hero and he was also my student, a student I loved like a son, Minato Namikaze" he finally said

Naruto's eyes widened at this, what the hell? Minato, Minato is…

"Are you telling that my father is the yondaime?"

"Er… yeah…"

"WHAT?!" he really believe it, how could it be possible, the yondaime was the most famous shinobi in the world, a village hero, the yondaime is the shinobi

"But… but… WHAT THE FUCK! How many people know about this?" naruto asked with a piercing look at his teacher

"Naruto-

"How many?"

"Sensei, Tsunade, the council, Kakashi, possibly more"

"So you all knew but not a single person wanted to tell me?" the jinchurikki asked with so much venom in his voice, in fact he was so angry that he's eyes had now turned to slits

"Naruto come down"

"Fuck that, you bastards knew who I was, who my parents are all along but just decided to ignore it and pretend like you don't know anything." The jinchurikki angrily shouted his teeth, nails and whiskers becoming more elongated and sprouting a single tail of the Kyuubi's chakra in the process

"Naruto, calm down" Jiraiya said walking towards the boy with a restraining seal on his hand.

"For so long I have wanted to know who gave birth to me, which family I belonged to, anything, anything at all that gave me an identity, anything that didn't make me feel so damn alone and it turns out **everyone else knew all along. You all knew who I was but decided not to tell me! You were laughing and smiling at me but behind my back you were spitting at me and laughing at me!"** barked the blonde going on all fours, bloodlust leaking out of him

"Naruto, you have to listen to-

" **I'm gonna kill you!** " the jinchurikki shouted lunging at his godfather

Fortunately, the sannin was prepared for this as he quickly dodged his student's onslaught and then quickly shunshined next to him and slapped the restraining seal on his forehead.

Naruto tried to take the seal off but Jiraiya was already holding firmly on the motel floor while the seal did its job. This struggle lasted for about a minute until all the Kyuubi's chakra was absorbed by the seal.

"Naruto, I'm sorry you have to find out this way, but you have to understand. We did it for your own good. Your father had too many enemies, if anyone would have found out who you were, you would have been killed long ago" Jiraiya said trying to calm down his student

"Great, that explains why you didn't tell everyone else. I'm more concerned about why you didn't tell ME!"

"Er…"

"You didn't trust me, you all kept me in the dark about my mother, father, clan and heritage simply because you all didn't trust me."

Jiraiya gave his wayward godson a deadpan look responding in the same vain;

"Really, are you really surprised? I'm not trying to offend you but you are not really the quietest person in the world Naruto plus you have been trying to get the village's attention since you were 5, are you seriously trying to tell me that you wouldn't have told them about your relationship with Minato during your many attention seeking activities?"

Naruto kept quiet choose not to respond, as much as he hated admitting it, he knew that Jiraiya had a point, he wouldn't have wasted any time telling people that Minato was his father. He would have probably stood atop the hokage monument and shouted it at the top of his lungs.

The white haired sannin sighed looking at his godson, man this kid's life was so fucked up.

"If the circumstances were different nothing would have been kept from you, trust me, Minato knew what he was doing when he made the decision to make you a jinchurikki. But when he did it, he hoped that you would be seen as a hero, a jailer of the bijuu that had almost destroyed the village"

Naruto snorted and responded sarcastically with a bit of bitterness in his voice, "And we know just how well that turned out, what a genius"

Jiraiya hid a wince, he couldn't say he was surprised by the resentment he could see on his student's face. Even though he didn't intend for it to happen this way, Minato was the one who got all the praise and adoration while his son got the short end of the stick.

Man this is going a to be a long couple of days.

"Can you take me there? Where my mother was born, I want to see it" the blonde jinchurikki said to Jiraiya bringing out of his thoughts.

The sannin responded with a big smile, thankful for the change in subject

"Sure thing gaki, we'll start off early tomorrow, this little village has some really blessed and talented babes. I want to do some more research tonight" said the super pervert with a lecherous grin

Naruto gave his master a disgusted look, "I hope one of them gives you syphilis and herpes"

"They can try"

As Jiraiya was about to go out of the room, the jinchurikki stopped him, showing a face that said that he wanted to ask something really important

"What is it gaki?"

"One last thing before you go; why did you choose to train me? I mean, I know you trained my father and all but that doesn't necessarily mean you are obligated to train me as well. So why are you really training me Jiraiya?" asked the cerulean blue eyed boy with curiosity on his face.

OH FUCK!

Jiraiya suddenly found himself in the same situation he was in just a few minutes ago, this kid is going to surely kill him this time, well at least he couldn't say that he didn't deserve it

"Hehe, um… do you remember when I said that I loved Minato like a son?" the toad sage asked with nervousness and a bit of fear in his tone.

The jinchurikki nodded and he continued

"Well it turns Minato and Kushina reciprocated those feeling because when they were expecting you, they named me your… uh… godfather"

" **WHAT?!"**

 **END CHAPTER**

 **Hope you enjoyed it, feedback is always appreciated.**

 **I wanted to post this new story on Christmas but whatever; New Year's Day is as good a time as any**.

 **Hope you like it**

 **By the way, can someone please suggest a character I can pair Naruto with, I was thinking maybe Hinata or Ino or maybe even Anko**

 **Jiraiya: choose all of them!**

 **Saravan: Shut up Jiraiya!**

 **SARAVAN OUT!**

 **AND HAVE A FANTASTIC NEW YEAR!**


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I don't Naruto but I really wish I did**

 **CHAPTER 2**

So this was his ancestral home? The place where his mother, grandparents, cousins, uncles, his entire clan lived. His body trembled slightly as he took a few steps away from Jiraiya. At this point, the Kyuubi jinchurikki hadn't even registered his presence. He was simply overwhelmed with emotions at seeing what was left of his clan's home. It seems going to Konoha had saved his mother's life.

Naruto couldn't help but imagine what it could have been like if he grew up in this place, the place where he wouldn't be an outsider, an outcast or a demon brat as some would call him. A place where he wouldn't have been looked at with hateful eyes

There was nothing now.

Just ruins

Jealousy and fear had driven some people to ruin this beautiful home of his

How cruel people could be

"How are you feeling" Jiraiya asked quietly even though he already had a good idea what must have been going through the young boy's mind

"I feel lost" naruto answered simply

"My father was a hokage, my mother was the Uzumaki clan-head's daughter, my clan was the sister clan of the Senju which means I was distantly related to 4 of the past five hokage, the other hokage treated me like one of his grandsons, my godfather is a sannin, my jounin sensei is kakashi 'the copy ninja' and my teammate was one of the last Uchiha. With all these ties, anyone else would be living the life of some noble prince but somehow with me…" naruto spoke; he looked his godfather and continued;

"My parents are dead, my clan was slaughtered, our home left in ruins, the village that they served despises me, my godfather abandoned me, my friend put a **chidori** through my chest and everyone else knows so many important things about me but were more than happy to keep quiet and preferred to watch from a distance as I suffered"

Jiraiya looked away from his student not knowing what to say, everything that naruto was saying was true and it gave him great shame to admit that. He could have easily given him a happier childhood free of loneliness, depression and scorn.

But he didn't… he's cowardice prevented naruto from getting everything he deserved, kushina and Minato must have been rolling in the graves with anger and hatred.

The toad sannin looked away from his student with deep regret and shame in his heart; he wasn't fit to call himself the boy's godfather.

"But do you know what the worst part of all this is?" the jinchurikki asked his master not really expecting an answer

"All my life I've been living a lie and I think most of it has been my fault. I've spent my entire life trying gain people's love and affection so much that I've somehow managed to delude myself into living in some fantasy world. Maybe I've always hated the villagers of konoha, maybe I've always held self-loathing, maybe I'm just another hateful human being; more hateful than Gaara ever was, maybe I've been like this all my life and I have been running from the facts all along. I… I don't know who I am Jiraiya, I'm… lost" naruto finished wiping away the tears from his eyes

A few minutes of silence past with both master and student contemplating what naruto had just said, Jiraiya sat down motioning to the young boy to do the same.

The sannin sighed and said; "listen, I cannot pretend to know or even understand your pain. Your childhood has given you more hardships and trials than anything I could ever imagine and admittedly it was only made worse by my absence but like you have done so much in your life you have look at the positives here"

Naruto scoffed and asked skepticism bleeding in his tone "really? Well then do tell me what positives I have going for me at the moment"

"Well first of all; you don't have much to lose at the moment; any person in this situation sooner or later realizes that they have everything to gain. The world is at your feet naruto. Your dreams, your clan's former glory, your love and so much more, all those things are right in front of you and it is up to you decide which path you want to take. And secondly; you may not have had anyone in the past but now I'm here for you Naruto and I swear on everything I hold dear that this time I will **NOT** abandon you" Jiraiya responded finishing his sentence in a firm tone.

The young jinchurikki looked at his master in the eyes trying to find some sort of deception in his words but the older man did not waver, after about a minute of the staring contest the jinchurikki finally gave him a small genuine smile which was returned.

Naruto then took his gaze to the destroyed buildings and temples, he took a few steps towards a broken wall with Uzumaki insignia on it, and he put his hand on it trying to clean out the dust that had accumulated on it.

His clan, his family, his village, his heritage, his home, his identity

"You know, I do not know if I truly want to become hokage or not or even if trying to get Sasuke back is worth it or not, but this…" Naruto said pointing at his clan's emblem

"I will fight for this, my clan, my fallen family, my heritage I will fight for it and I will make sure that the Uzumaki name is great again" he finished with fire and determination in both his tone and expression

The young uzumaki felt his sensei's hand on his shoulder and a whisper close to his ear saying "you have to be strong in order to accomplish that"

"Don't you worry Ero-sennin, by the time we are done with this training trip I'll be beating your ass black and blue and I won't even need the Kyuubi for that"

"(Scoff)… as if"

"Oh yeah! Just watch me you old perv, my old man will be wishing he was me from the grave"

 **ONE WEEK LATER**

"Alright Naruto before we start with the training, we need to first address your strengths and weaknesses" Jiraiya said as he stopped walking and sat down on grass, they had finally found a good clearing to start with the young jinchurikki's training

"Firstly, your weaknesses; your taijutsu is average at best, I've seen your fight a couple of times and I've noticed that you usually fight like a brawler, your opponents easily overwhelm you in taijutsu so you use the **kage bushin** to try to retaliate and cover your area of weakness. Your ninjutsu is excellent for a gennin but the way you use it is what bothers me; you haven't fully mastered the **rasengan** , you misuse the **kage bushin** and you have never bothered to summon the toads to help with your training. You have no knowledge of genjutsu to speak of, fuinjutsu is basically nonexistent, you completely missed the basics and your chakra control completely sucks." The sannin said seriously and Naruto frowned at that, he didn't expect to have so many weaknesses

"As for strengths; your unpredictability is a huge strength to have as a shinobi and thankfully you have that in abundance, you have more than enough chakra and stamina even without the Kyuubi and you have the unique ability to talk your enemies out of their emoness." He finished with a smile

"Great so my greatest strengths are that I'm a walking battery that never shuts up" said naruto with frustration and annoyance

"If you wanna look at it that way then … yeah"

Naruto groaned at his master's response, this was going to be harder than he expected

"Guess we have a lot of things to cover then"

"Yep, you still remember what I told you about the **kage bushin**?"

"Yeah, I do. I even checked it out"

"Good, then make about 200 clones so that we can get started"

Naruto was all too happy to comply, he was finally getting the training he had wanted ever since he become a shinobi

"Alright, separate them in two groups"

Jiraiya waited for the jinchurikki to complete his instructions before he also created 2 clones.

"Ok, so this group will work on chakra control and other one will work on improving the ninjutsu you already have in your arsenal, you will have to master them and know how and when to properly use them before I teach you more ninjutsu. My clones will be there to watch over and give further instructions if need be" instructed Jiraiya

The real naruto looked at his master and asked "what will I be doing?"

"Make five more clones, you need to learn, have your clones study these books" Jiraiya said taking out some books from a scroll

"While your clones are busy with other things, you and I will work on your taijutsu and your calligraphy" he finished

 **MONTHS LATER**

Naruto dodged a punch to his face, before jumping over a kick to his mid-section from his opponent. His opponent rushed toward him once again, their long yet somehow spiky white hair billowing in the soft breeze.

Entering his stance once more he prepared to defend himself. His opponent threw a fist to his face which he dodged, following up on his attack with another kick to Naruto's gut which the blond blocked but was pushed backwards from the force of the kick, sticking to the surface of the water, the blond skidded atop the surface of the water, creating a small wave-ish path as he disturbed the serene waters. He came to stop as a loose wall of water rose from behind him and he smacked softly into it. Regaining his bearings he saw an axe kick descending toward him from his opponent and the blond rolled out of the way before attempting to take out his opponent's legs from under him with low kick to his opponent's legs which the man jumped over.

Charging towards his opponent, a wave-ish trail of water rushing behind, he engaged him in a bout of Taijutsu. The two were mere blurs to the naked eye as they clashed against one another, throwing punches and kicks in speeds that were impressive to look at. Naruto twisted his body in a 180 turning motion as he sent a roundhouse kick to his opponent which was blocked, before following it up with another long kick which connected with his opponent's chest, albeit with the metal armor covering them taking the brunt of the attack.

His opponent responded with a knee to the gut and a kick to the face of the blond which he blocked with both his arms. Leaping backwards to put some space between himself and his opponent, Naruto assessed the situation. Currently he and Jiraiya were sparring atop the water and the blond was looking a little worse for wear. He was bruised, battered and starving but the latter could wait, the weights he was wearing didn't help either as they made it difficult for him to move faster and restricted him. He was panting harshly, a river of sweat flowing down his face showing the exercise was making him work up a sweat.

It had been five and a half months since his training with Jiraiya had begun and it had only intensified by the day. With each day his perverted Sensei would add a new obstacle or a crazy rule that would put him at a disadvantage or handicap him, like the one they were doing now for example.

The man had decided to add weights to his clothing and right now the blond was fighting not only the redhead but was fighting with every muscle fiber in his body to prevent himself from sinking into the cold water below him. This was another one of Jiraiya's 'self-created' training exercises where he had to stand and spar atop the water while wearing 150 lbs weighted metal plates all over his body. Although it was troublesome, the effects and results of this particular exercise were extraordinary and astonishing and well worth the trouble. It not only improved his Chakra control significantly, but went a long way toward increasing his speed, endurance, strength and the blond himself was quite pleased with how far he had come from just the basics of physical training.

That though, didn't mean he neglected his studies, spiritual and cognitive training, no he read every book and scroll he could get his hands on to improve his grammar and vocabulary and Jiraiya also dedicated some of his time toward teaching him calligraphy and the blond recognized that the efficiency, control, calamity and elegance that went into the art calmed him down significantly.

Naruto dodged his opponent's punch, retaliating with one of his own which connected with his opponent's face and instead of having them reeling on the ground in pain; they simply puffed out of existence in a cloud of smoke.

The blond was praising the genius which had developed the jutsu, weather used by his opponent or not, he could not deny the fact was arguably the greatest jutsu ever created. Unlike the Bushin no jutsu which had been a bane of his existence in his short time in Konoha's academy, this jutsu favored high Chakra usage and practically no Chakra control at all. The former which he had in spades and the latter which he had impeccably improve in

His thoughts however were interrupted when Jiraiya appeared delivering a brutal axe-kick on his shoulder though instead of wincing he simply grinned and made a rat sign, " **super explosive clone jutsu"** he said going out with a huge explosion.

As the real Naruto was heavily panting, he couldn't help but feel a sense of dread creeping up inside him. He knew full well that the Jiraiya he had blown up was also a clone and if the past few months were anything to go by, he was in for a world of hurt if he dropped his guard even for a bit.

Ever since he had started this serious training 6 months ago, he had finally understood why Jiraiya was so feared and respected around the elemental nations. The sannin did not allow Naruto to gain any false confidence in anything they did; he would tear down the jinchurikki piece by piece, give him a brutal beat down and admonish him for making foolish mistakes. All in all, Naruto had finally understood that if Jiraiya was taking anything serious, mediocrity was not accepted.

All of the sudden Naruto felt he's feet being dragged down deep underwater; he tried to fight it off but was given a brutal uppercut for his troubles sending him flying upwards.

He quickly formed a **rasengan** in his right hand knowing that Jiraiya would appear, just as he predicted the sannin appeared above the jinchurikki and quickly caught the hand holding the A-ranked jutsu, the man punched the boy in the stomach brutally making him spit out some blood then pummeled him to the ground. The power of the attack was enough to send Naruto crushing back into the water.

"That's enough for now" Jiraiya said with a small smile obviously happy with his student's progress so far

 **2 YEARS LATER**

Naruto jumped back avoiding Jiraiya punch which crashed into the ground creating a small crater. Naruto dashed towards while the sannin's fist was still planted on the ground. He swung his right foot attempting to land a kick on Jiraiya's face. Jiraiya sensed the attack and looked up. He positioned both his hands and blocked the Kick. The kick had so much force that it pushed Jiraiya back, and made him wince.

Naruto continued his assault by raising his other foot. He swung it and attempted a roundhouse kick at his opponent. The kick came at Jiraiya with so much speed that he could not avoid it. His hands were still recovering from Naruto's previous kick. He only managed to bring out one hand to block the kick. It was not enough as the kick sent him flying. Naruto did not give Jiraiya time to recover as he appeared above him. He applied wind chakra to his fist preparing for a bone cracking punch. He punched Jiraiya to his chest sending him crashing down like a bullet.

As soon as Jiraiya hit the ground with a loud crash, Naruto noticed that there was something wrong. Jiraiya was too powerful and experienced to be caught that easily. 'Genjutsu?' Naruto thought to himself. He held a single hand seal, ''Kai!'' he muttered and dispelled the illusion.

He sensed something from behind. Spinning around Naruto saw Jiraiya dashing it him at fast speeds.

Naruto could do nothing as Jiraiya's knee crashed into his gut. Jiraiya added to the assault with a powerful punch to Naruto's face. The punch sent Naruto in flight.

Naruto recovered quickly before he hit something and flipped in midair. He landed on the ground in a crouched position before standing up and looking at Jiraiya impassively.

''It seems I'm still having some trouble with genjutsu if I was caught that easily.'' Naruto stated.

Jiraiya nodded, ''You are getting good at detecting it though.'' he commented. It was indeed true Naruto had become good at detecting his illusions.

When they started training, Naruto did not have any skills at genjutsu. He could be caught in one for the whole day and still not be able to recognize that he had been caught in a genjutsu.

Naruto said no word any further. There was no need for him to say anything but he made a mental note to work on genjutsu later on. He got into his taijutsu stance and prepared to face Jiraiya once again.

Both opponents ran towards each other and clashed in between. Jiraiya attempted a high roundhouse kick at Naruto. Naruto saw the attack coming and crouched down, dogging Jiraiya's kick. He spun around and attempted a leg sweep on Jiraiya. Jiraiya was too experience to be caught by something like that. Thus he jumped up avoid Naruto's leg sweep.

While still in flight, Jiraiya flashed through hand seals, gathering enough chakra for his jutsu. **''Fire Style: Great Fireball**!'' A large fireball expelled from Jiraiya's mouth and raced down at Naruto who was still in a crouched position. The flames hit a Naruto and consumed him before dying down.

Jiraiya was on alert knowing that something like that would not put Naruto down despite him firing the jutsu at a close range. He was not disappointed as Naruto charged at him from behind. He quickly spun around to block a kick aimed at his head. Another Naruto appeared behind Jiraiya and threw a number of shurikens at the sannin's back. The Naruto that had attempted to kick Jiraiya disappeared in a puff of smoke. Jiraiya realized that it had been just a distraction. He quickly used a replacement technique to avoid the shurikens that were of no doubt doing to pierce his back. A log appeared in his place, taking the hits that were meant for him.

Naruto narrowed his eyes searching for his sensei. He did not have to wait long as a bundle of shurikens flew towards him at high speed. Naruto gathered the wind around him and mixed it with his own chakra.

 **''Wind Release: Wind Palm**!'' Gusts of winds sped towards the shurikens. The two attacks met and Naruto's jutsu propelled the shurikens away from Naruto. The gusts of wind continued to make their way towards Jiraiya who simply leaped away.

Naruto went through a number of hand signs. As he did that, the wind around him turned into at least 20 wind shurikens that that where spinning around him. **''Wind Release: Wind Shuriken!''**

The wind shurikens sped at the unmoving form of Jiraiya. He knew that the shurikens where sharp and could leave a few gashes should they hit him. He had seen the attack before, and it would be nasty if he were to be hit. As soon as the wind shurikens got into touching distance with Jiraiya, he disappeared in a perfectly timed body flicker. Naruto cancelled his technique and looked to where Jiraiya had disappeared.

'' **Earth style; instant earthquake**!'', Naruto barely had the chance to defend himself when the ground he was standing on suddenly opened up and swallowed him whole crushing him in the process.

Jiraiya seeing his student seemingly get crushed by the small earthquake merely stretched his sensing abilities; the sannin knew full well that while that attack could have easily killed any jounin, his student was way too unpredictable and too resilient to allow himself to lose a battle like that.

Jiraiya's thoughts were interrupted when he heard the blond say;

" **Earth style: projection fish style jutsu"**

Naruto did his jutsu while he was underground and attempted to pull Jiraiya to the ground but the sannin reacted faster and jumped away avoiding the jutsu, his relief was short-lived when the blond appeared above him holding a very, very dangerous jutsu that was making screeching noises

" **Wind style: rasenshiruken"** the blond said and threw the jutsu at Jiraiya, the sannin's eyes widened in panic.

For the first time in a long time, Jiraiya was actually afraid for his life. The **rasenshiruken** was nothing to scoff at; he knew exactly the kind of damage that the jutsu was capable of, he had labeled it as an S-ranked jutsu for a reason. In an act of desperation, the toad sage created a **rasengan** of his ownand quickly added his fire affinity to it.

" **Fire style: rasen-infernal"** he said and quickly threw the burning jutsu at the **rasenshiruken** hoping that they will cancel each other out, though he quickly realized his mistake when he saw the two jutsu combine and therefore create the biggest fire he has ever seen in his life barreling down on both student and master.

Naruto went through several hand signs and then clasped his hands together and released a wave of chakra. **''Sealing art: Chakra Barrier**!'' Naruto muttered as a barrier erected around him. The barrier was Orange taking the color of Naruto's chakra. It did not cover a wide area it did just enough to shield Naruto. The fire hit the barrier but was unable to break through the barrier.

While Jiraiya used multiple body flickers to get away from the fire

Jiraiya sighed slightly with relief and was about to attack the blond again when he sensed something on the ground about 5 meters away from him, it looked like a normal **rasengan** but it was glowing so Jiraiya immediately recognized the jutsu

'Shit, he had already planted the **rasen-bomb** ' he thought and quickly used another body flicker to escape before the jutsu exploded leaving a huge crater on the ground.

Jiraiya went through a set of hand seals, **''Fire Style: Dragon Breath**!'' he said and then expelled a jet stream of hot and intense flames towards Naruto. The flames sped towards Naruto with amazing speed.

" **Earth style: mud wall** " the blonde said creating a huge wall that blocked the fire jutsu from reaching him and burning him alive, his celebrations were not long however because while he was still holding up the wall, Jiraiya appeared behind him holding an **odama rasengan**

Without looking back Naruto quickly created a seal less clone that formed an **odama rasengan** of its own and clashed with Jiraiya's while he was still dealing with the fire.

When the flames died down, Naruto deactivated his earth jutsu and charged at Jiraiya.

They engaged in a fierce taijutsu battle that ignited sparks around the small training ground. Naruto was faster than Jiraiya, but Jiraiya had the power and the experience to predict Naruto's attack. This only made the battle even fierce than it had been as none let their guard down. Punches and kicks where thrown at one another, which were each being either blocked or dodged.

...well that was before Jiraiya suddenly blurred out of sight and appeared behind Naruto, and positioned a kunai on his neck. Jiraiya was alarmed when he felt a sudden rise of chakra from Naruto. The 'Naruto' suddenly exploded to gusts of winds. The explosion caught Jiraiya, giving him multiple cuts on his front and sending him flying away.

Jiraiya recovered quickly and flipped twice before landing on the ground on his feet. The moment he landed, he felt a spike of chakra from Naruto. The said blond appeared in front of Jiraiya with a Rasengan on his right hand. **''Rasengan!''** Naruto yelled as he tried slamming the **Rasengan** on Jiraiya's gut. The toad sage was saved by his experience by leaping sideways from the attack. Naruto missed and his **Rasengan** slammed the ground creating an explosion. The explosion was just a testimony to the power of the **Rasengan.** As the lifted debris cleared, a rather large crater was formed in the middle of the training ground and Naruto was standing still in the middle of the crater, panting slightly.

Jiraiya stood not far away from Naruto, his clothes tattered because of the explosive clone that hit him, but he was otherwise okay if not counting his slightly labored breathing

Despite it all, Jiraiya couldn't help but give a proud smile to his student; he had truly grown since they started their training. He had expected Naruto to be a powerhouse but those expectations were blown to pieces every time he sparred with the blonde. In just 2 and half years, the blonde had gone from a weak, loud and obnoxious child to a warrior capable of going toe to toe with him, a sannin.

This definitely confirmed it; he was the greatest shinobi teacher of all time.

Nobody, not Orochimaru, or Sarutobi, or Hashirama or even Tobirama could claim to be better than him at this. I mean, sure Sarutobi had taught the three sannin but he taught a rinnegan wielder, the yellow flash and another S-rank shinobi in the making. He would bet anything that Naruto would not only surpass his father but he would also achieve more for the world than anyone would even imagine.

"Alright Naruto, that's enough for now." The toad sage said walking towards the blonde. When he was within an arms length of the boy, he put his hand on the boy's shoulder and gave him a warm proud smile

"Am proud of you"

 **A WEEK LATER (MOUNT MYOUBOKU)**

"So this is where all the toads live?" Naruto asked looking around with fascination, never in his life had he ever imagined that the toads were living in such a beautiful land

"Amazing isn't it?" Jiraiya said knowing exactly what the jinchurikki was thinking

"Y-Yeah, I mean… wow."

"So this is the Naruto I have heard so much about" Naruto heard someone say and when he turned his eyes to the source of the voice he was surprised to find two short yet old looking toads staring at him

"Eh, who are you?"

"Well please excuse my manners, this is Shima-chan and my name is Fukasaku and I'm going to teach you sage mode" the now identified Fukasaku said

''Pa, I will go get some food for Naruto-chan. He has to taste my delicious food before he begins his training.'' Shima said looking at her husband.

Fukasaku just nodded, he did not want to deal with his wife now. Naruto was more important.

''Follow me Naruto-chan.''

Naruto crouched out of the small house and followed Fukasaku. They went to a clearing, which had statues of large toads. Naruto just walked over enjoying the cool breeze that washed over him. The air around him was enjoyable and not the same as the air he breathed at the hideout. The air at village of the toads felt natural.

Fukasaku ordered Naruto to sit down while he stood staring at the blond with a serious look on his face.

''Before I even begin to teach you Senjutsu you have to know the risks.'' He said making Naruto raise a brow. ''Learning Senjutsu requires you to absorb chakra from nature and balance it with your own, physical and spiritual energy. The chakra you absorb from nature is extremely powerful. Absorbing too much of the chakra or not having too much control of the chakra will turn you into one of those.'' He said pointing at the statues that seemed to decorate the area.

Naruto was certainly not expecting something like that to be as the risk of learning Senjutsu. Jiraiya had said Senjutsu was powerful. Naruto now could conclude that nothing of great power did not come easy to achieve. Nevertheless, for great power to be achieved one had to deal with the risks.

''Do you still want to train even when knowing that you can die?'' Fukasaku asked.

''Yes I have never been the one to back down from anything.'' Naruto replied with a smile

Fukasaku smiled, ''I thought you might say something like that.'' He then instructed Naruto to sit beside a waterfall. That was what Naruto thought, but it was not actually water that was flowing but oil.

''To be able to absorb natural energy, you must be able to be one with nature, feel nature and hear nature.'' He said as Naruto took a meditative pose. ''Getting in touch with nature should be easy for given that you meditate a lot.'' He said.

''Is it possible to train somewhere else in the elemental nations other than here?'' Naruto asked.

Fukasaku nodded, ''Yes. However, due to the risks you have to train here. This oil helps you to absorb nature chakra easily. It is only found here and cannot be found anywhere.'' He said the poured the oil on Naruto.

''When you absorb too much chakra I will hit you with this.'' He said as a black stick suddenly appeared on his hand. ''This stick will force natural chakra out of your body when the process of purification begins.''

With those things said, Naruto began his Senjutsu training with the toad sage.

Jiraiya looked at the toad gave him a nod, he talked to them to train Naruto in Senjutsu and while they had expressed their concerns about the jinchurikki being too young, Jiraiya had still managed to convince them that the boy needed all the strength he could get. He told them about the Akatsuki the danger they posed to Naruto's life so they toads finally agreed knowing that they could lose another summoner if they didn't train him.

"I leave him in your hands, I'll be meeting some contacts and hopefully get some more Intel on the Akatsuki and their motives. I'll be back in a month or two" he said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

 **2 MONTHS LATER**

"I'm impressed; getting a grasp of sage mode at such a young age is quite a feat. Meeting a young one who can stay still at all is rare enough but sensing and absorbing natural chakra is near impossible" Fukasaku said, bringing his stick back into his clock

"Thanks Fukasaku-sama, heh I can't wait use this to beat Jiraiya's ass, he'll be so jealous that I managed to master sage mode while he failed" Naruto replied with a shit-eating grin

"Oh ho ho, mastered, eh? I'd say you have a ways to go before you've 'mastered' Sage Mode. What kind of enemy would let his opponent sit there and charge up energy for ten minutes? As it is now, your Sage Mode is useless in combat." said Fukasaku.

"Well what else can I do, huh? You said it yourself, 'One MUST be ABSOLUTELY still when gathering Natural chakra, or risk losing control and joining these poor fools who tried and failed.'" said Naruto, gesturing to the surrounding statues of toads in meditative poses, those who had failed their Sage Mode training and paid the price.

"Yes, one must be still when gathering natural chakra, but not when using it. And it's child's play for one sage to give natural chakra to another sage. Using a technique I developed for just such a use, the **Sage Art: Amphibian** **Technique** , Shima and I can fuse with you. We gather the natural chakra while you do the fighting in Sage Mode. Pretty useful, huh?" said Fukasaku, obviously pleased with himself for creating such an amazing technique.

Meanwhile Naruto was imagining what a fusion of himself and Fukasaku would look like, his mind conjuring monstrosity after monstrosity for to be horrified by. Seeing the look on his face, Fukasaku quickly explained. "It's not an equal fusion. It mostly looks like we're just sitting on your shoulders."

Naruto let out the breath he had been holding in relief. Fukasaku quickly jumped on his shoulder and began the technique. It didn't last long as the small toad was violently ejected from his perch. Fukasaku picked himself up and began thinking as to why his wonderful technique had failed so catastrophically. He came up with nothing and decided to try again, brushing off Naruto's concern for his wellbeing. Upon attempting the Amphibian Technique again, the jutsu seemed to work as intended for an instant.

" **I refuse to share this cage with some pathetic little** _ **frog.**_ **OUT!"**

And the instant was gone, as Fukasaku was launched across the clearing once again. This time however, he had a much clearer idea of what had gone wrong.

"Pa! Are you okay?" asked Naruto in concern.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine. It's the Nine Tails that's rejecting the Amphibian Technique. I'm afraid that you won't be able to use Sage Mode. I realize this must be a lot to take in, but the toads and I think nothing less of you. This is-"

"Stop." interrupted Naruto, his hair shadowing his eyes.

"I won't let this stupid fox dictate what I can and can't do. If I can't fuse with you to use Sage Mode, then I'll just learn to use Sage Mode while moving!"

"What?! That's impossible! Gathering natural chakra, whose entire purpose is to be gathered while still, while moving is impossible! It can't be done!" said Fukasaku in disbelief.

"Before you, Sage Mode was next to useless. You invented the Amphibian Technique, I'll invent something to gather natural chakra while moving." said Naruto determinedly.

Fukasaku's eyes widened before he smiled a devious smirk. "All right, if anyone can do it, it's you. But I don't want you trying this without me nearby to knock the natural chakra outta you." said Fukasaku, brushing himself off.

"No worries, I've been studying fuinjutsu for the past two years now, so I'm sure I can create something that can allow me to maintain sage mode without having to stay still" Naruto said ever-confident in his skills

 **2 WEEKS LATER**

Fukasaku didn't know whether what he like about Naruto the most; his determination or his talent. Firstly the fifteen year old surpassed all his expectations when he mastered sage mode in just two months, not even Minato managed to do that. Then two weeks later, the jinchurikki created a seal that allowed him to maintain sage mode at all times even during sleep.

Fukasaku was never one to believe the constant bullshit that the grand elder toad kept spilling about some 'child of prophesy' but now he was actually starting to believe.

The toad looked at the grinning young boy again, paying close attention to the seal on his chest and back. The seal on the chest designed with a kanji for "inlet" and "outlet" for the one on his back.

Apparently, the seal he had created was in two sets namely; the inlet seal and the outlet seal.

After countless days of trying and failing to come up with a suitable seal, the jinchurikki had gone to a river to freshen up but after observing the water pass through a tunnel and go out through the other end. The blonde realized that if he was to make sage mode easy for himself, he had to act like the tunnel, if he had created a seal that only allowed nature chakra inside his body then he's body would not be able to contain the constant chakra getting into his system. It would only be a matter of time before he would blow up like some over inflated balloon. Even the Kyuubi's chakra was held by a seal so he realized that having an unlimited amount of nature chakra in his body was just asking for trouble.

Thus came the creation of the **sealing art: inlet and outlet seal** , the inlet seal allowed the nature to get into his system while the outlet seal took the chakra out his system as soon as it entered creating a perfect balance. The seal acted in such a way that as long as there was nature chakra in the environment, which there was, he'll would always be in sage mode unless he closed both sets of the seal.

"Fukasaku-sama?" Naruto said bringing the older sage out of his musings

"What is it my boy? Is there a problem?" he asked with a bit of concern in his tone

"Huh, not at all, it's just that ever since I started learning elemental ninjutsu with Jiraiya-sensei, I learnt wind and earth manipulation quiet easily since wind is my primary element while earth is secondary but since the likes of kakashi-sensei and Sarutobi-jiji are able to use all five elements I trained harder to try and master the other three elements as well but I couldn't even get down the basics of them. Yesterday though, when I was in sage mode I tried to burn a leaf with fire chakra and surprisingly enough it worked. When I tried it again in my normal state, I failed miserably. Can you explain that to me?" said the blonde looking at his teacher intently

"Well, it's really not that surprising really. You see nature chakra does not belong to any specific element; Water, earth, wind, fire, neither lightning nor any other element, that's because nature has them all. That's why when one completely masters sage mode they become aware and in tune with the world that surrounds them. Sage mode is not just about gaining some more power or sensory abilities, it's the ability to feel and understand the world as a whole, that's why one of the first stages of mastering sage mode is meditation. So yes, while in sage mode it will be easier for you to learn and execute elemental ninjutsu" the toad explained to the blonde

"I see. Its quiet fascinating, no wonder Jiraiya-sensei values it so much" Naruto remarked

"Pa and Naruto-chan food is ready! This time I cooked a lot cause I know that you two must be really hungry" Shima said approaching master and student

While Fukasaku's face showed an excited grin, Naruto couldn't help but pray for Jiraiya's immediate return, he was really getting sick and tired of eating bugs and caterpillars all day.

 **END CHAPTER**

 **Finally!**

 **I'm sorry for the delay, my computer crashed when I was just about done writing a new chapter for every story so I was forced to change the operating system thereby losing all the data I had saved.**

 **Anyway I really hope you enjoy this chapter, I still haven't decided who to pair him so if you have any more suggestions**

 **P.S: I really need a beta, like desperately or else you're gonna be forced to deal with a lot of grammar, spelling and punctuation errors.**

 **SARAVAN OUT!**


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER; I don't own Naruto, never have, never will.**

 **Hope you enjoy**

 **THE REAL AND COMPLETE SAGE**

Natural energy is energy that can be collected from the atmosphere and terrain. If one can collect the natural energy from around them and combine and balance it with the spiritual and physical energy that makes up their chakra, they can become sages, allowing them to use Senjutsu and enter Sage Mode, due to it being the energy of the planet, if the world's natural energy is interfered with, powerful natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to tornadoes occur instantly.

Mastery over such energy whether mild or complete control is an ability almost all shinobi would dream of having under their arsenal but like all things that are truly worth possessing it takes hardest of training sessions, the blood, sweat, tears, meditation, concentration and pushing your body to the absolute limit, breaking those limits while creating new ones and when it's all said and done, very few shinobi have ever managed to truly master Senjutsu.

Some shinobi were known to use jutsu that utilize nature energy but that's not the same as mastering nature energy.

In fact, out of the hundreds of shinobi that have tried to master Senjutsu only Hashirama, Jiraiya and Minato were known to have mastered the power of Senjutsu and even then the last two had never truly completely mastered it.

All these facts though didn't seem so significant when Jiraiya looked at his latest student with wide eyes

Sage mode, a technique that he had spent years upon years trying to fully master, a technique that Minato, a once in a lifetime genius, could only use for less than 5 minutes and yet his son, the so-called dead last of his class, had somehow managed to not only master Senjutsu but also figured out a way to maintain it at all times.

"I-I c-can't believe it" the sannin sage said walking around naruto in circles like he was trying to confirm that what he was seeing was real.

"Well I'm just that impressive, suck it up" Naruto responded smugly still in sage mode, honestly he is yet to deactivate the seal since he created it.

"Impressive indeed, he has shattered all my expectations and then some" Fukasaku remarked standing next to the two summoners

"Y-Yeah, he's managed to surpass me, it really is unbelievable" Jiraiya said obviously agreeing with Fukasaku while Naruto merely stood there soaking up the praise like a sponge

"Damn right Ero-sennin, I told you I'll be more powerful than you by the end of this training trip" he said

"Ho ho, I said that you've surpass me, that doesn't necessarily mean you're more powerful blondie. You're a hundred years too young to hold a candle to my awesomeness"

"You wanna test that perv?" the younger sage challenged

"Fine. I've always enjoyed putting my foot up some wannabe's ass but I'll particularly enjoy this one considering you'll have no excuses to give afterwards." Jiraiya said already in a fighting stance

"it goes both ways sensei"

"Alright enough you two! Geez, and you're supposed to be our strongest summoners" Fukasaku chided playfully before master and student could start their brawl

"Before I forget Naruto-chan, ma and I made this for you, we hope you like it" he said presenting Naruto with a black cloak with flames at the bottom and kanji for "Sage" written in red at the back with an Uzumaki swirl just on top of it

"Wow, thanks a lot Fukasaku-sama" Naruto said happily hugging the cloak, it was obvious to both toad and sannin that the blonde didn't get much presents

"Hey wait a minute! Minato and I were sages way longer than this squirt how come you didn't give us anything?" asked Jiraiya

"Because Minato-chan and you didn't master Senjutsu the way Naruto-boy has and what's more, he did it in just a month and a half" responded the elder toad while naruto snickered earning himself a glare from the older sage

"Naruto-Chan's accomplishment makes him our first complete sage" he finished giving the said blonde a proud look

"Yep, that's right, me, Naruto Uzumaki the one and only real toad sage, unlike those other fools" the blonde gloated gesturing to the surrounding statues of toads in meditative poses, those who had failed their Sage Mode training and paid the price

His boasts though were interrupted when he felt a pole coming down on his head with enough force to sink a nail into metal

"Stop disrespecting your predecessors fool, they might have failed to master sage mode but they were still toad summoners just like you" Fukasaku scolded putting the pole he was using to beat the extra nature energy out of him down

"Ow, okay I'm sorry, geez" naruto placing his hands on his bruised head, that was definitely going to leave a mark

"Anyway, before you go why don't you go and thank Ma personally for being a good host, she was very excited and proud of you that she prepared a huge congratulatory banquet" the toad said his eyes seeing stars while he salivated at prospect of an all you can eat feast

Fukasaku was so excited that he failed to notice the panicked and horrified looks on his two students

"Eh, well unfortunately I had already eaten before coming here" Jiraiya lied smoothly patting on his stomach for emphasis

"Er, well, I, y-you see I-

"Come on one true Sage you wouldn't want to keep Shima-sama waiting, would you? Don't be disrespectful" the sannin said interrupting Naruto's mumblings

The younger blonde glared at his master giving him the finger only for the sannin to respond with a cheeky thumbs up and an "enjoy yourself" look

"Go fuck yourself sensei" the blonde said verbalizing his earlier thoughts.

 **A WEEK LATER**

Ever since Orochimaru killed Sarutobi-sensei, Jiraiya has never felt so pissed off before, he was really boiling with so much rage that he felt like putting his hands around his blonde companion's neck and strangle him to death.

He gave a death glare to his student who was doing an amazing job ignoring him as they walk away from a small village in the land of honey having run out of supplies and every day necessities.

It was during his everyday research sessions when his student, his stupid student, his fucking asshole of his student, decided to go to the bank and somehow managed to withdrew half of the sannin's money and deposited in his pathetic little account.

Seriously, HALF! That's about 45 million ryo, Kages didn't have that much money in their account, not even Ohnoki who has been in that damned sit for almost half a century. If he had only withdrawn a million or two, the white haired sage wouldn't have minded much but

45 fucking million ryo!

He looked at the direction of his student who was spotting an obnoxious grin, right then and there, Jiraiya was really tempted into smashing a **rasengan** on the back of Naruto's stupid head

The silence went on for about 5 minutes until Jiraiya finally exploded

"Why the hell did you steal so much of my money you stupid brat?!" he shouted

"meh"

0_0

0_0

The sannin's left eye twitched with annoyance as he continued staring at his student

"Naruto, I swear to you, I'm going to beat the living shit outa you if you don't give me a proper explanation, now talk" he threatened

"Tsk tsk, Ero-sennin, three years ago maybe that threat would have had me shaking in my pants but today… with my perfect sage mode, your old ass cannot keep up" the young sage said giving him that annoying unbearable grin

Arrogance

Sure a few days ago master and student had gone toe to toe in a full blown spar and in the slightest of margins, the blonde (assisted by his sage mode of course) managed to topple the sannin.

Goes to show much the blonde had grown since they started this training trip

Still

"I still want a reason you blonde bastard"

"It will be useful when I start restoring my clan plus I need a new apartment, a real sage cannot live in such a place"

"WILL YOU STOP WITH THE "REAL SAGE" BULLSHIT!"

"Heh, jealous sensei?"

Jiraiya merely mumbled about disrespectful arrogant brats as they continued walking

"But did you have to get so much money? Half of that amount is enough for restoring two clans and more than enough for two whole lifetimes" the veteran shinobi said

"Which should mean that its more than enough for one perv" the student countered

"I got a spy network to run"

"And whores to visit?"

"Exactly"

"Well then, consider it punishment for taking a 15-year-old to a brothel as his birthday present, honestly how irresponsible can you get?" Naruto scolded

"Hmph, last I checked you enjoyed yourself immensely" Jiraiya retorted giving his student a Pervy grin

Naruto looked away from his sensei, his face containing a blush that would make Hinata proud

"I'm a teenager with raging hormones, what the hell did you expect? Besides that's really not the point" responded Naruto making a silly excuse for himself

"It's exactly the point, making some pathetic excuses for yourself especially when we both know just how much you enjoyed it is quiet retarded"

"Whatever Ero-sennin, it's just that I'm still trying to figure out a way to properly deal with Hinata's feelings for me when we go back to Konoha so you paying some random whores to flash their D-cup sized titties at me is not helping things" said the jinchurikki

"There's nothing to worry about squirt, just tell her to flash her tits to the 'one and only complete sage' and if you like them then she's as good as yours. Besides, from my experience, shy girls are quite freaky in bed" the sannin said whispering the last part of his sentence with a perverted giggle obviously remembering something that would give even Orochimaru a bloody nose

"I'm serious you stupid perv, can you not think with your dick for once?!" Naruto angrily shouted his face going red from the unwanted (wanted) images his brain was creating

Stupid hormones

"I am being serious and that face of yours is already clear proof that you're also thinking about it" said Jiraiya his ever existing smirk on his face

"You're impossible"

The two continued walking in comfortable silence for a few minutes giving the sannin time to really think about his godson's growth and what is possibly awaiting him in the future

Akatsuki

The criminal organization he has been investigating for years without much success. For a group of shinobi who walked around in black cloaks and red clouds on them, information about their ware bouts and activities was rather scarce. That and the fact that they had a spy network much better than the older sage himself making them a much bigger threat

Ever since he started investigating them the only information he got was that they were only comprised of s-ranked shinobi, Orochimaru was once a member, its other members are Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki and that they were targeting all the Jinchurikki

For what purpose? He had no idea

Why did Orochimaru leave? He had no idea

Who was their leader? He had no idea

Who were the other members? He had no fucking idea

It was honestly frustrating trying to find anything out about this organization. The only thing he could do is hope Naruto's training was enough to beat these guys. The sannin made a silent vow to protect Naruto at all costs, he has already failed to protect his first students, the Ame orphans, his prized student Minato and he also failed to look out for Naruto during his rather harsh childhood but this time he would be damned if he let anything happen to his godson

Jiraiya took a quick peek at his blonde student who has been in sage mode ever since they left Mount Myoboku, his eyes were a golden yellow with bar-like pupils and natural chakra showing itself as orange markings around his eyes and he was wearing the cloak that the toads had made for him.

Well despite his obnoxious boasts, the blonde Uzumaki has really grown during these last three years, not only in strength but in intelligence as well. Looking at him now, he's such a stark contrast to the person he was when they first started

The 12-year-old child who struggled for recognition, acceptance and looked like he had the weight of the whole world on his shoulders but skillfully hid it behind the face of a smiling knucklehead.

Now he is a 15-year-old real shinobi who was confident in his own abilities and his place in the world and Jiraiya couldn't help but feel a bit of the guilt that has been within his heart concerning his abandonment of the blonde jinchurikki wither

"Yo Ero-sennin" said jinchurikki said interrupting his thoughts

"Hmm"

"You know how my chakra is so condensed and just too damn much that I couldn't manage to use the academy basic jutsu like the **bushin** right?"

"What of it?"

"Well two days ago I was messing around with the **kage bushin** because I was just bored but then I realized something when I tried the transformation jutsu on the clone"

"What?" Jiraiya asked getting curious as to where the jinchurikki was going with this

"Yes well I henged into a toad yesterday and I actually turned into real durable and tangible toad" Naruto said earn wide eyes from the veteran shinobi

"Naruto, that is not how the Transformation technique works."

"I know, the Henge is a weaker class Genjutsu and all it does is allow you to apply an illusionary layer over yourself that merely looks like a different thing if the Henge was a solid transformation, every shinobi with access to it would use it to grant themselves shape-shifter abilities like turning their hands into swords."

"But you've somehow managed to do something that no shinobi has ever done before and that's to make yourself a shapeshifter using the Henge" the sannin said wondering if he's student was quiet possibly one of the most talented shinobi out there because this was just getting ridiculous

"I could do this since I first started using chakra and I've just noticed it now. Honestly it's like I was awesome long before I became the one and only real complete sage"

"Uh huh"

Naruto frowned at his sensei's less than believing response, taking it as a challenge the blonde quickly made a **kage bushin** and instructed it to turn into giant eagle which it did without any objection

The huge smoke cleared showing a perfect brown giant eagle that looked like it was a summon animal

"Amazing."

The sage said walking around the henged naruto in circles touching it in various places trying to confirm its tangibility

He moved away from the clone and looked back at the blond, who was grinning with an "I-told-you-so" expression on his face.

"You're oversaturating the technique with chakra."

"I know"

His tone took on one which befitted his title as 'A legendary Sannin' "Fundamentally, when you oversaturate a technique like say, a fireball, all you would get would be a roaring wildfire, and likewise when you oversaturate something like a water gun, you would get a tsunami. Of course, this lack of control and precision is expected with elemental techniques, but the Henge isn't an Elemental Jutsu. Hence, all the excess chakra had nowhere else to go but back into the technique, granting the illusion tangibility and giving you the properties of whatever you transformed into, though I highly doubt it grants you the same durability."

"It does actually, look" the grinning blonde said jumping on top of his henged that quickly launched itself in the air flying as fast as it could with the blonde jinchurikki on top

"See I just made transportation easier for myself without even thinking about it. Awesome huh?"

"Yeah it is, now come down here so that we can ride together and make this trip shorter" Jiraiya said grinning at his student's genius

"Nope"

"Eh?"

"You want a free ride? You have to catch it first" with that being said the henged eagle flew as fast as it could to the land of fire leaving the sannin behind

It took Jiraiya several seconds to process what had just happened. Jiraiya had never experienced this level of disrespect from any of his students before, EVER. and so the great legendary sannin, Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, the man men want to be and women want, was reduced to chasing his student on his henged clone

"Come back here and let me ride you, you stupid brat… I mean, let me get on top of your clone… I mean er, just get here damn it!" the white haired sage screamed out while comically chasing after his student

 **TWO DAYS LATER**

The two sages of mount Myoboku were now currently on their way to the land of fire as they passed through the land of wind on Naruto's henged clone who was now henged into an owl by the sannin's insistence claiming that owls were wiser than regular birds thus befitting of a sage to ride on.

The blonde didn't put much of a protest considering the Henge would last for about 4-5 hours before running out of chakra thus helping them cover a bit of distance

Naruto looked back at his mentor who was busy scribbling into his notebook with a Pervy grin plastered on his face. A few hours ago, Jiraiya had convinced (forced) Naruto to fly above the water-springs of some random village so that the older man could do his research from above with a binocular (where the hell did he even get one?), all in all he has never seen so many naked women in his life and he could admit that a tinnie tiny bit of him enjoyed the view as much as the perv himself.

He's Pervy thoughts however were disturbed when he sensed something, no three somethings actually, he didn't know if these people were allies or not but their chakra levels were definitely WAY above that of a regular jounin. Naruto frowned at that as he tried to quickly discern what was going on, apparently he's facial expression did not go unnoticed by the older sage who wasted no time in asking what was wrong

"I'm sensing three powerful chakras approximately 15 miles north" the jinchurikki responded his face becoming serious as he mentally prepared himself

"It could be Suna shinobi Naruto, we are in the land of Wind after all" Jiraiya said not seeing what was making he's student so agitated

"No, these are above average chakra signals and I can sense a bijuu in one of them and whoever they are, their chakra keeps flaring like they're in a battle" Naruto replied

Jiraiya quickly understood the implications of those words the minute they left Naruto's mouth

Akatsuki

But who could they be fighting in a place like this?

Gaara? No, his spy network kept him up-to date with the major events of the elemental nations so he knew that Gaara was now Sunagakure's newest and youngest kage in history and being the Kazekage, he wouldn't be battling the Akatsuki alone while the village's shinobi seemed to be enjoying their peace

"Alright then, let's check it out"

Those simple words seemed to prompt the jinchurikki into action who quickly created two clones that henged into hawks

both master and student sage jumped on the two henged clones and quickly flew to the site of action.

 **15 MILES AWAY**

Fuu was not having a good day, A few months ago her team had been finally allowed to participate in the chunnin exams by the village leaders, she was so excited at the prospect of meeting new people and making friends that she happily took the opportunity.

Despite the fact that the majority of her village ostracized and made her an outcast since she became a jinchurikki, Fuu has always loved Kusa so she wanted to make a good impression at the exams to bring more clients for them.

The first part of the exams, the written portion had been… interesting to say the very least but with enough help (be it reluctant) from her teammates, they had managed to pass. The second part of the exams, surviving the traitorous desert of Suna had been harder than she had anticipated, they were required to deliver a scroll to the main tower of Suna within 3 days and had to be among the first five teams to get there so competition was always going to be fierce not to mention dealing with the bandits, wild animals and traps set up for them.

The first two days had been really hard trying to get her teammates to work together with her rather than brash her off like some curse they had to endure on their way to glory especially now that their sensei was not around so progress was low. On the third day, things picked up when she ran into the teams from konoha, she had immediately befriended them because they seemed like nice people and they helped each other pass the exams.

Unfortunately, the third and final portion of the exams could not take place because of some emergency issues had come up that the higher ups had to deal with meaning that the chunnin exams was cut short so they would promote from the performance of the two portions only.

On their way back home, after saying goodbye to all her new found friends and making them promise to visit her of course, her team ran into none other than the immortal Kakuzu himself, a man whose legend was so well known in Kusa that parents used it to scare their kids into behaving, apparently the 90+ year old man had joined some criminal organization called the Akatsuki who were targeting jinchurikki

Honestly, being teammates with a jinchurikki was a hard enough task and yet these guys deliberately choose to pick fights with them?

What kind of monsters were they?

Oh right, S-ranked shinobi

And so, here she was, her entire team completely slaughtered by Kakuzu's sadistic partner while she defended herself against the immortal man himself.

The battle, if it could even be called that, was pretty much one sided. Fuu used every jutsu in her arsenal even her bijuu's chakra but Kakuzu somehow managed to take everything she threw at him and walk out of it with nothing but a mere scratch. Fuu was no fool (eye-roll), she knew from the moment it started that this battle was going to be her last, every part of her knew and yet she didn't want to give up, she wanted to push on, give it everything she had and hopefully find some sort of lifeline, anything to ensure her survival

Her hopes however were crushed when the sadistic man that had massacred her team came rushing at her with his bloody scythe in hand screaming maniacally

Fuu quickly ducked to avoid the clearly crazy man's initial swing, she quickly brought her left hand up to block his following punch

Her bijuu's wings quickly sprouted allowing her to fly away from her attacker though she didn't reach far before Kakuzu's lightning mask came flying up to her ready to roast her alive, she closed her eyes finally having resigned herself to her impending fate, she could feel the mask charging its chakra in preparation for a jutsu so she waited…

Then,

" **Rasenshiruken!** " she heard someone scream

Fuu heard a screeching noise and quickly opened her eyes trying to see what was happening and saw a fuma- shiruken like jutsu crush into the lightning mask destroying it instantly

A blonde haired boy quickly jumped in front of her his eyes venomously staring at her assailants while the older man quickly shunshined next to Kakuzu's partner and slammed a **big ball rasengan** in his gut sending him flying into the woods.

She quickly recognized the older white haired man as Jiraiya of the sannin from the bingo books but she couldn't recognize the blonde haired boy that had just saved her life

"Are you okay?" he said bringing her out her thoughts though his eyes never left the two Akatsuki members

"Y-yeah" she said inwardly cursing her weak response

"OW!" the scythe carrying nin screamed angrily

"That hurt you stupid, ugly piece of shit!" he finished pointing his scythe at Jiraiya

"Hidan shut up. That's not some ordinary shinobi you're talking to dumbass" Kakuzu said not only annoyed with his partner's ever present stupidity but also with the fact that the blonde brat just seemly destroyed his mask with practiced ease

For a bounty hunter like Kakuzu, battling shinobi with large bounties was his most favorite hobby so he always made a point of keeping up with the latest entries in the bingo book but he has yet to see this blonde brat before and his chakra was quiet interesting, he couldn't distinguish it from nature itself and he has never seen or heard of any dojutsu that had described the ones in the blonde's socket

'Another konoha upstart' he thought getting ready for the battle for quiet possibly the fight of his long life

Although he masked it perfectly with a look of calm Naruto couldn't help the nervousness he was feeling at the moment, these guys were one of the biggest reason he has been busting his ass for the past three years. He was still confident in his own abilities but still… these bastards were purposely targeting jinchurikki which meant that they were atleast prepared to fight him should he transform, taking a quick peek at his fellow jinchurikki naruto confirmed his theory, despite the fact the she was still standing, the girl looked like she was knocking on death's door.

For a split second, Naruto wondered if he was really ready to face these people

"Naruto, get ready. This is what we have been training for now snap out of it." Jiraiya said easily deciphering the blonde jinchurikki's thoughts

Naruto quickly shock his head disrupting the negative thoughts going through his mind and took a fighting stance

'Well, I guess there's only one way to find out'

 **END CHAPTER**

 **Took a while didn't it? Admittedly not my best chapter but still managed to get to where I originally planned**

 **Thank you for your patience**

 **SARAVAN OUT!**

 **P.S: still haven't decided who to pair Naruto with, seriously need help here.**


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto though I'm pretty sure someone will very soon.**

 **Thank you for your patience, please enjoy.**

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at the two Akatsuki members, he knew of Kakuzu and the notorious history of the rogue Taki shinobi;

He was one of the few ninjas to ever survive a battle with Hashirama Senju, though instead of being honored, the village cruelly punished and imprisoned him. It is said that after escaping prison, he stole the scroll containing his's village's forbidden jutsu where he learnt " **Earth grudge fear** " and used it to take the hearts of the village leaders before leaving the village.

His name did pop here and there during the second and the third shinobi war when reports came that the former Taki ninja was working as a bounty hunter and as a freelance shinobi taking on some of the most dangerous missions for big money, which was something else the former Taki nin was notorious for; greed and a deep lust for money.

Jiraiya knew of many bounty hunters, all of whom were mostly interested in going after the "big fish" and admittedly he has faced quite a lot of them but none of them could ever match Kakuzu's ambition, this man was crazy enough to go after one of the strongest shinobi in "Hanzo the Salamander" simply because the man had one of the largest bounties in the entire elemental nations.

Of course he failed but the mere fact that he survived the one on one encounter with Hanzo when the entire 'Team Hiruzen' had barely escaped with their lives is nothing short of amazing.

But that was a long time ago, Jiraiya was still an inexperienced jounin at the time he was fighting Hanzo, now he could comfortably say that he was one of, if not the most powerful shinobi in the elemental nations with tons of experience and wisdom to back up his power. Not as much experience as the 91-year-old rogue nin of course but still enough that mattered.

The sannin's eyes narrowed further as he eyed Hidan, it irritated him to realize that he knew next to nothing about the man.

His name is Hidan and judging by the slashed forehead protector placed around his neck, he was from Yugakure.

That's all he knew about him, he's face didn't ring any bells from any bingo books and from what he knows of Yugakure, the village turned from being a shinobi village to become a tourist attraction years ago.

This man has no reputation whatsoever, Jiraiya knew nothing of his skills, past battles or even a dangerous mission Hidan had been on. And yet… he found himself in Akatsuki, the most dangerous threat to the elemental nation in history comprised of only S-ranked shinobi.

So it was quiet right for Jiraiya to assume that Hidan was also an S-ranked shinobi himself despite the fact that he didn't know or recognize him.

If participating in two major wars and countless other battles had taught him anything, it would be to never underestimate his opponents simply because of reputation or rather a lack of it. If the Akatsuki trusted him enough to hunt down jinchurikki for them then he sure as hell won't underestimate him. Hell, Naruto was basically a "nobody" in the elemental nations and the Sanin himself knew first hand just how powerful the blonde was, so who's to say that Hidan wasn't the same?

And because of that, Jiraiya deemed Hidan as the most dangerous of the two but he wasn't going to make any decisions based on assumptions alone, then again considering that this was a three on two situation he guessed the odds favored his side, nevertheless he still wasn't going to make any reckless decisions.

The older sage looked at his student, frowning and seemingly ready for action.

'Well, I guess now's the time to find out if you are really ready Naruto' he thought

"Come on! Just what the fuck are we waiting for?!" Hidan screamed with frustration much to the annoyance of his partner

"Shut up Hidan" Kakuzu said in a dangerously low tone though he was interrupted when Jiraiya spoke out loud

"Now Naruto"

No sooner had Jiraiya said those words than two Naruto clones puffed into existence.

A second later they disappeared. A shift in the wind was the only warning they got as both clones were behind the two Akatsuki members each clone swinging a **rasengan** across their backs.

Kakuzu's eyes widen when the clone slammed Hidan with the **rasengan** so hard that he sent the Jashinist back into the woods with an incredible speed. Though the clone targeting him didn't have the same luck because the moment it connected with the rasengan, Kakuzu used his experience with fast opponents by using the " **Iron skin jutsu** ", his skin instantly turned darker, he's body became hard as iron therefore the **rasengan** didn't do much damage to him.

The clone widened its eyes but he used that moment to execute a high roundhouse kick that connected with its head immediately puffing it out of existence.

The next second the other clone was on him but again, Kakuzu was prepared, the clone delivered an axe-kick which Kakuzu easily blocked with his hands but he didn't give the clone any other chance as he countered with a brutal uppercut on it.

"Super exploding clone" the clone said before it went out with a big explosion

When the smoke cleared, it revealed a harmless Kakuzu staring at Naruto with an irritated expression.

"That won't work on me boy, you're gonna have to try harder" he said rubbing some dust off his cloak

"Well, it seems that settles it. I'll handle Kakuzu while you two should go after that Hidan guy." Jiraiya commanded. "But be careful, don't underestimate him and if he proves to be too much to handle then just hold him off until I'm done here"

"Got it, Fu since you're still injured you will be my backup"

"Right" Fu's expression hardened as she nodded too, slipping back into her combat stance and summoning a water sword again, ready to fight alongside her fellow teen

"Jiraiya of the sannin", Kakuzu said as he evaluated his opponent," well this is a surprise, today seems to be my day, your prowess and actions as a spymaster have given you an enormous bounty"

"Damn it!" Hidan cried as he emerged from the woods, rolling his shoulder as he shrugged off the pain of the attack, "that hurt you little shit! Where the fuck did you even come from"

"He may not be fast like his partner but it seems that he can at least take a hit, though I still can't believe he just shrugged off the **rasengan** like that" Naruto commented

"Ha! Like I told that little cunt, we are immortals dumbass" Hidan taunted with a grin spread across his face.

"And I've told you a million times that there is no such thing as an immortal"

Jiraiya grunted in response before making two hand signs and slamming his palm into the ground, " **Earth style; Dark swamp** "

Both Akatsuki member's eyes widened as the earth transformed into thick mud at the sannin's touch rapidly spreading across the ground towards them.

The two leapt in different directions to escape the spreading bog which chased after them in both directions. Jiraiya released his jutsu and sped after his opponent as naruto and Fu did the same with Hidan

" **Fire Style: Flame Bullet** _"_ ' Jiraiya inhaled deeply and breathed out a massive, oil filled ball of fire which barreled towards the missing nin, who leapt over the attack.

Kakuzu was very fast, very strong, and highly skilled in taijutsu, but Jiraiya outdid him in all these areas, however, he was still pushing Jiraiya back against a wall.

Why, you might ask, was the sage having so much trouble? All one needed to do was look at Kakuzu to find the answer. Though he still looked normal, his skin had taken an unnaturally dark tone. He was using a jutsu Jiraiya recognized as **Earth** **Style: Iron Skin** , to harden his body, making every inch of himself nearly as hard as tempered steel. Jiraiya had punched him earlier, sending him into a tree, but all he got out of it was a stinging hand as it felt like he'd really punched metal. This was why he wasn't damaged by the Rasengan earlier, and Jiraiya was having a hard time finding a way around this defense.

Flipping in midair, the man threw his forearm out towards the Sannin, which shockingly detached from his arm, connected to him by the numerous threads, and flew towards the Sannin.

The toad sage leapt back to dodge only to look in shock as the limb changed direction, shooting towards his throat and gripping his neck as the threads ensnared him. He tried to pry off the hand that was choking the life out of him, only for the threads to entangle themselves around his body, restraining his arms and preventing him from fighting back.

"Hm. Is that the best you can do?" Kakuzu asked. Despite this, his senses were warning him of danger. This had been too easy; there was no way someone with a bounty as large as his would be taken down this quickly.

Sure enough, his instincts were proven right when the Sannin smirked and burst into smoke. Kakuzu frowned as he recalled his now empty appendage. "When did you…?"

Suddenly, he was doused from behind with a sticky green fluid. Kakuzu struggled, but he quickly found himself encased in the mass and unable to move.

"Hah, you should have known that it would take more than that to bring down the great Jiraiya-sama." Jiraiya said as he stepped out of the foliage, though he kept his distance. "I suggest you don't struggle. A single spark is all it'll take for you to go up in a ball of fire. I doubt your jutsu would protect you from the raging inferno this stuff would make."

"Hm." Kakuzu responded. "You vastly underestimate me." Surprisingly, without hand signs, the ex Taki ninja inhaled deeply.

" _ **Water Style: Exploding Water**_ **Shockwave!"** Kakuzu spit up a massive surge of water, blowing his mask off his face and revealing his lower jaw was stitched to his head as well, each side beginning at the corner of his lips, giving him the appearance of an ear to ear grin.

The flood of water was so massive it pushed Kakuzu off of the ground and sent a wave towards the Sannin, which he dodged by taking to the trees. Looking down on him from a branch, with a grim expression.

This wasn't good. To be able to use a jutsu without a single hand sign was an extremely advanced art. It required total mastery, not only of the element but of that jutsu itself. It showed he hadn't been wasting the decades since his defection.

"It was foolish of you to leave those two with Hidan." Kakuzu stated as he looked up at the Sannin, his expression neutral. " though You were right in believing I was the greater threat, but Hidan may very well kill those two." He then shook his head, his gaze turning in the direction of the other battle. "I get enough complaints from our leader for killing my pervious partners. The last thing I need is flak for him killing one of our targets and delaying our plans."

Jiraiya's frown deepened at that. This guy killed his own partners? Either he was a complete bastard, or despite his calm demeanor, he was just as likely to go into a blind rage as his partner.

Taking note of that, Jiraiya questioned. "So, you said the last ninja of our village you fought was the First? and I heard you once engaged Hanzo the salamander in one to one combat, pretty impressive that you actually managed to survive."

Kakuzu grunted in response. "'Survive' is too strong a word. I dragged myself back to that pitiful excuse for a village half dead after that battle, and how do they respond?" He scoffed. "That's when I learned a valuable lesson. The only things in this world you can really count on are yourself and money."

With a smirk, Jiraiya nodded. "Yeah, seems to me you did learn something valuable."

"Oh?" Kakuzu tilted his head.

"You said he was the last Konoha ninja you fought. You learned not to mess with our village." Jiraiya replied tauntingly, though Kakuzu's expression didn't change. Jiraiya then raised his hand, holding his palm up and parallel to the ground as he added. "Not that I blame you. If I'd been beaten that badly, I'd probably run scared every time I saw the Konoha symbol too."

"Don't flatter yourself brat. While my battle with the First was many years ago, the only reason I haven't faced a Konoha shinobi since is because I don't go after small fry. Since the deaths of your Second, Third and Fourth Hokages, the only shinobi your village produced with bounties worth my time are yourself, Tsunade, Orochimaru, Might Gai, Asuma Sarutobi and Kakashi Hetake, not counting Itachi of course. I simply haven't had the opportunity to pursue them yet since I've been collecting valuable bounties from all the other villages. Perhaps you'd like me to collect Tsunade's head after yours since she'll be the next Konoha ninja with the highest bounty after yours and she's nowhere near as powerful as her grandfather was." Kakuzu said darkly with clear intention that he'd do what he said.

Jiraiya's face darkened, his fists clenching when he heard the ex-Taki ninja threaten Tsunade. He would make the man regret threatening his old teammate. Before he could respond, the Akatsuki member continued.

"But maybe you'd like to see how much I've changed since that day."

With that, Kakuzu's face twisted in effort as he clenched his fists. His back began to shift unnaturally as the mass of threads beneath his skin shifted and the unstitched his back, until finally, his back burst open. Three masses of threads tore themselves out of him, each one with the mask and shaped themselves into a monster.

One appeared to be a demonic tiger, another a four legged creatures with small, makeshift wings, and the final a twisted, two tailed wolf.

Jiraiya stared down in disbelief and disgust at what he saw, the forbidden jutsu making him think of his former teammate, Orochimaru. This seemed like it was right up his alley.

Which brought the question; what kind of monster had this guy turned himself into?

"I normally have five but that other brat killed my lightening heart" Kakuzu said then lightly shook his head, "tsk, it really doesn't matter now, I will still kill you"

"How about this?" The tiger like construct leapt into the air and opened its mouth, revealing a small fire ball.

Jiraiya's eyes widened as he recognized the jutsu as **Fire Style: Searing Migraine**. He quickly bolted to another tree just as the tiger like monstrosity released a small fire ball about the size as a fist, which erupted into a massive fire storm the moment it came into contact with the tree, destroying it and setting the nearby trees ablaze.

The creature rapidly fired the attacks, causing Jiraiya to bound through the trees as it rapidly decimated the forest. While still in midair, Jiraiya sensed something wrong. His gaze fell downward to see the winged construct flying at him. It opened its mouth and wind spiraled towards it, compressing into a small ball.

Jiraiya's face became a mask of shock. There was no way. This guy was using high level techniques from four different elements! Even factoring in his long life, he shouldn't have been able to master the elements to this degree.

The creature released the jutsu **: Wind Style: Pressure Damage**. The small ball of compressed air struck true, slamming into the center of Jiraiya's chest and exploding into a twisting maelstrom on contact, hiding him from view.

When it cleared however, nothing but torn pieces of a log fell to the ground.

"What?" Kakuzu questioned as Jiraiya came at him from behind, wielding another Rasengan. He slammed it into his back, aiming for the stitches that held his body together in hopes of ripping his body apart.

The ex-Taki ninja was pushed forward by the attack for a moment before he fell apart into water. Jiraiya's eyes widened as the other constructs leapt away from him. He looked up to see the fire and wind spewing creatures coming at him together, combining their attacks into a single ball of fire and wind.

' _Oh, shit._ ' Was Jiraiya's sole thought before they released a massive wave of wind and fire than destroyed a huge section of the forest.

As Naruto and Fuu faced down Hidan, Kakuzu stared after the devastation his attack caused, tilting his head, knowing that wouldn't be enough to take care of the legendary shinobi. Minutes had passed, and still no sign of the Sannin.

"You can drop the act. It would take more than that to finish one of your caliber." The ex-Taki ninja stated as his eyes wandered the area.

Sure enough, a mass of spiky white hair burst out of the ground, shaping into a form reminiscent of a lion's mouth as it lengthened and sped towards the missing nin.

Kakuzu leapt back to avoid the attack, but it moved too quickly for all his masks to dodge. The winged construct was caught in the hair and driven through the air, slamming it into a tree with enough force to nearly break it in half, the strands of hair hardened to the point that each was like a steel needle, piercing the creatures mask.

The construct writhed disturbingly in the grip of the Sannin's hair before seeming to melt, liquefying and slipping to the ground before the hair retracted.

Kakuzu snarled at seeing his water using mask destroyed.

The Sannin burst out of the ground, immediately running through the hand signs for the **Fire Style: Flame Bullet technique** once again, this time partitioning the oil to fire off small fire balls instead of one large one.

The constructs quickly dodged through the air, flying even though they had no wings.

Sensing danger, he spun to see Kakuzu himself coming down on him from behind, grabbing him by the shoulder and grappling with him through the air, trying to stab him through the chest with his hand as his tendrils burst from his body to ensnare him.

Jiraiya managed to fight back, overwhelming Kakuzu's grip and manipulating his hair to fight the threads and stab Kakuzu, only for it to bounce off of him as he hardened his body. However, the hair did serve a purpose: winning out against and tearing through the tendrils while entangling Kakuzu's arms and allowing Jiraiya to get the upper hand.

Jiraiya gripped the missing nin's shoulder and maneuvered them so Kakuzu's back was facing the rapidly approaching ground, Jiraiya pulled back his hand and clawed it.

The **Iron skin technique** was extremely difficult to overcome. Explosions, taijutsu short of the upper levels of the hidden lotus and most ninjutsu were rendered useless due to the damage resistance the technique offered. There were only a few ways to counter it.

First, use genjutsu. Not an option, genjutsu was never the toad Sannin's thing. Second, use a lightning technique to pierce it. Again, not an option, as though the toad Sannin knew enough to teach one how to use the element and had access to scrolls detailing advanced lightning jutsu, he didn't have the affinity and had never learned to use it. That left option three, an extremely powerful attack that could shatter even the damage resilience the technique offered.

Fortunately for the Sannin, he had just the thing, and he owed it to his most recent student.

During training, Jiraiya had commented on the **Giant Rasengan** Naruto had created. The technique was far more powerful than the basic **Rasengan** , a testament to this being the fact that the attack as absolutely lethal, whereas the basic **Rasengan** was incapable of killing on its own.

Inside Jiraiya's hand just a few inches away from his palm, chakra gathered and formed into a swirling orb, but unlike the normal technique, this **Rasengan** was only one fourth the size of a basic one.

A variant of the **Rasengan** created specifically to pierce powerful defenses.

He thrust his hand forward, slamming the tiny orb into the missing nin's chest. " **Great Spear Rasengan**!"

The attack drilled into Kakuzu's chest. With Jiraiya's hand and lengthened hair holding him in place, preventing the attack from pushing him back, it instead drilled into his steel hard skin.

Kakuzu cried out in pain as his chest was torn open, sending the black threads that seemed to hold his body together spiraling out and ripping his heart apart. Red blood and black, liquefied tendrils flew from the site of the impact before finally, Jiraiya released him, allowing the orb to burst, releasing a wave of chakra that sent him flying, slamming into the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust. Jiraiya landed only a few feet away.

The Taki missing nin lied there, motionless, lifeless eyes staring up into the starry night sky.

 **Naruto and Fu VS Hidan**

Naruto was confused as hell, for all the hype surrounding the Akatsuki's power and perceived threat to the elemental nations he had really expected them to be the toughest ninja he would ever have to face.

I mean, this was a criminal organization comprised of S-ranked ninja, the toughest of the tough, the kind of ninja that could destroy a small ninja village by themselves and could also hunt down jinchurikki like they were ordinary shinobi.

And yet…

He's fight with Hidan was going in the opposite direction that he would have expected.

The Akatsuki member was slow, shot-tempered, impatient and he telegraphed all his moves. He only used taijutsu with his triple bladed scythe as a weapon. Sure he had tremendous control of his scythe, amazing stamina and healing abilities but other than that, the man showed no qualities that would warrant him an S-ranked status.

Despite the fact that he was losing the battle, Hidan did not stop to re-evaluate his opponents or form some sort of strategy nor did he use a single ninjutsu or a genjutsu against them.

Due to the enhanced sage mode speed and great control over the wind element, Naruto was able to easily avoid, dodge and counter Hidan's attacks.

Finally, naruto got fed up the man's predictable routine as he ducked, avoiding the out-stretched scythe and then countered with a brutal wind powered uppercut that sent Hidan flying in the air.

He quickly pressed the attack as he reappeared behind Hidan in the air and delivered another **Rasengan** on his back that sent him crushing back down on the ground.

"Fuck!" Hidan cried out as he stood up again ripping his torn Akatsuki robe off him," I'm really getting sick of that jutsu of yours you little bastard" he said as he glared at Naruto

"I could say the same with you" Naruto replied with a frown. "how are you even in the Akatsuki? Because you are quite frankly one of the weakest people I've ever faced"

"Oh yeah? Wait until I put my curse on you, you little shit" Hidan lashed out giving a fierce grin in the end, "Trust me I will enjoy our pain"

Naruto's frown deepened because he didn't understand what the man was saying, he tilted he's head to look at Fu who had been pretty much nonexistent throughout this battle

"Hey, uh, is this guy capable of anything other than swinging a scythe and cursing people out?" he asked

"Huh, I- uh, I'm sorry, I was fighting Kakuzu while he was fighting my teammates so I didn't see much of what he can do, sorry" the girl answered slightly put out by the fact that she was basically useless in this battle

"Don't underestimate me!" Hidan shouted enraged, "So what if I'm the slowest member in the Akatsuki and not the smartest, but there is a reason I belong to the fucking group."

"Oh and I can't wait to show it ya, I've already prayed for forgiveness from Jashin-sama so I need is just one thing from you and I will get it the slightest chance I get" The Jashinist said seemingly losing himself in thought, "once our bodies are linked, you will witness just how great Jashin-sama really is and you will realize the great power he has bestowed upon me"

"Oh yeah? Well then let's see how your great Jashin helps you deal with this" Naruto said as he charged at Hidan with great speed using his wind manipulation to once again appear behind Hidan.

Naruto attempted a high roundhouse kick which Hidan dodged and quickly countered by swinging his scythe upwards. Naruto simply stepped on the cable connecting the scythe and used it as a launching pad to take to the air, Hidan followed after him but quickly regretted the idea when Naruto came back down with a huge **Rasengan**

" **Massive Rasengan** " Naruto said as he drove the jutsu into the jashinist's chest, going back down with him as they reached the ground with enough speed to cause a sizeable crater.

Naruto used a sunshin to stand next to Fu as he said, "Well, it appears that that's that. We should go help Jira-

"OW! Man I really hate you kid" Hidan screamed out interrupting him as he once again stood up

"What the hell? You're still alive?" Naruto exclaimed shocked that Hidan was still able to stand despite the really large hole on his chest

"Told you I'm immortal dumbass" the Akatsuki member replied with a furious grin as he's wounded chest started to heal. He furthered shocked the two teens when he brought the scythe up to his face and gave the two jinchurikki a feral look

"I also told you that all I needed was one chance, didn't I?"

Hidan's face lit up in a sadistic grin as he leapt away. As he moved backwards, he brought the scythe to his mouth and licked blood off of the blade, when he was satisfied with the speed, he quickly drew a seal on the ground.

"The preparations are complete!" Hidan cackled in an almost insane manner as he stepped into the seal. "You're now under my curse." The Jinchurikki would have commented on this, before his body began to shift. His skin turned black with white, skeleton like patterns appearing over his body with a skull like symbol covering his face almost like a mask, giving him an appearance slightly reminiscent of a stereotypical grim reaper. "I have been waiting for this" He said as he reached into the remnants of his coat and pulled out a collapsible pike, which he promptly opened up. "… And I want to make it slow and enjoyable so then, lets revel in some glorious pain!"

 **Jiraiya vs Kakuzu**

Jiraiya sighed as he looked down at the defeated Akatsuki member. That had been a fairly difficult battle. Now all that was left was to…

Suddenly, he sensed something coming at him, fast. Looking up, his eyes widened in shock as he saw the three remaining mask creatures flying towards him and their master. The Sannin had expected the jutsu to be canceled as soon as Kakuzu fell, but apparently not.

He jumped backwards as the three slammed into Kakuzu, breaking apart into masses of threads as the neared him and remerging with his body. Jiraiya watched, disbelief written on his features as the man rose to his feet, the seams in his body bulging and retracting as the threads beneath his skin shifted and they burst from his body in masses.

His arms separated from his body, linked to together via the threads, and a large mass of it spilled out from his lips. His back completely opened up, allowing writing tentacles made of the tendrils to form as the earth and wind spewing masks fastened themselves where Kakuzu's shoulders should have been, the fire mask vanishing into his body.

Jiraiya took stock of his adversary's new form with a grim expression. How was he still alive? There was no way he'd missed his heart, and for that brief moment, he'd definitely been dead. The way that he revived when those things returned…

"I see…there's so much more to **earth grudge fear** jutsu that I didn't know about" Jiraiya began, his mouth twisting in revulsion as he understood. "That's how you've survived all these years. You've been using the forbidden jutsu you stole to take the organs, more precisely the hearts of shinobi you killed, and used them to replace your own. That's also what lets you use all the elements, you've been running your chakra through those stolen hearts and using the element of its original owner."

"You certainly are worthy of your title of Sannin." Kakuzu commented, speaking perfectly clearly despite the mass of tendrils coming out of his mouth. "You're exactly right. But now I've already lost three hearts because of you and that other brat. I'll need to restock… yours and his will do."

Jiraiya jumped back off of a branch as a massive tentacle of threads, which tore about a fourth of the branches off of the tree, landing on the ground in a crouch and bolting to the side as the tentacle came back and slammed onto the spot he'd been standing on a mere moment earlier.

Kakuzu had transformed once again. His lower and upper jaws had completely separated, allowing a massive tentacle to come out of mouth, accompanied by seven more coming from his back and where his shoulders should be. They were linked together by bundles near their bases, allowing him to fly, if need be.

The area around them had been devastated by their battle. Dead and torn up trees littered the area, and all the underbrush had been burned and ripped away. Scattered fires slightly illuminated the area and deep wounds had been carved into the ground.

Kakuzu seemed to favor massive, overpowering attacks that were difficult to dodge. Together with his speed and skill and Jiraiya could see why he'd been recruited into the Akatsuki. He idly wondered what Kakuzu would do normally, when he has a teammate he has to watch out for. Remembering his earlier comment, he figured he probably either didn't care and let them get caught in his attacks, or was easily enraged into doing so.

Which begged the question how his current partner was still alive. Hopefully, it was either due to luck or simply not having been his partner that long.

As Jiraiya dodged the attack, he saw the masks besides Kakuzu's head open up, revealing a mass of wind and an orb of fire. Jiraiya slammed his palms together as the masks released their attacks, creating a massive vortex of electrified water, and slammed his palms to the ground.

" **Barrier: Three Pillar Formation**!" A curved, triangular barrier appeared before him, protecting him from the firestorm. He grit his teeth as he channeled chakra into the barrier to block the massive attack.

Eventually, the attack passed. Jiraiya released his jutsu the moment it did and bolted forward, but the moment the smoke cleared, he saw the wind mask's mouth was still open, shooting out fast arrows of wind.

Jiraiya tried as best he could to dodge them but they were too fast thus ended up piercing him in various parts of his body though fortunately for him, Jiraiya was able to protect his vital spots. But Kakuzu pressed the advantage as he quickly delivered a brutal high kick to the sannin's jaw sending him flying then used his outstretched hand to grab the sage's foot and slammed him back down to the ground resulting in a small crater.

Before Jiraiya could truly recover, another tentacle then slammed into the Sannin's chest, sending him flying through one of the damaged trees and into another, creating an indentation in the bark before he fell to the ground, trickles of blood leaking out of his mouth.

As he fell through the air, another tentacle sped towards him, separating into its component threads and moving to ensnare him and tear out his heart.

Jiraiya managed to recover and land on his feet. " **Ninja Art: Needle Jizo!** " His hair once again became a mass of needles hard as steel that completely covered every inch of his body just as the tentacle reached him. He then spun on his feet so quickly he appeared to be a miniature tornado, tearing up the mass and causing it to back away. The moment he sensed they were gone, he let up his defense, jumping over the threads when they lashed out again and ducking and dodging them as he charged towards Kakuzu.

He snaked around several tentacles that moved to strike him as he neared the ex-Taki nin and pulled his arm back, ducking below one final attack and knocking Kakuzu's arm aside before punching him in the gut, causing him to bend over. He then grabbed his head and slammed his knee into his face right between his eyes, dazing him slightly.

Jiraiya then summoned a kunai to his right hand and slammed it into the water mask, causing it to cry out as a black substance leaked out, before forming a **Rasengan** in his free hand as the tentacles moved in to ensnare him.

He slammed the orb into Kakuzu's stomach, causing the tendrils to cease their assault and writhe before the attack exploded, sending Kakuzu flying back and away from him. He unfolded his tentacles and used the net of bundles between them to hover in the air, growling in frustration as the remains his wind heart and mask was expelled from his body, replaced by the fire mask, which began to rapid fire fireballs at him.

Jiraiya quickly body flickered to avoid the barrage of fireballs, which created a massive conflagration when they hit the ground.

Feeling the searing heat wash over him as he watched from behind a tree, Jiraiya smirked as he wiped the blood from his chin. There was a reason Itachi and Kisame had feared the prospect of facing him, as Kakuzu was beginning to realize.

' _Three down, two to go._ ' Jiraiya thought as he looked for an opening.

 **Naruto VS Hidan**

Naruto and Fuu stared at the silver haired man, who stood in the center of the seal he engraved in the ground in blood, his skin black with white, skeletal patterns.

"What's he talking about?" Fuu asked, her eyes narrowed and her body tense in concern over their immortal adversary's transformation.

While Naruto felt the same trepidation she did, he made a cross shaped hand seal, summoning five more shadow clones. " It doesn't matter, if that's what he's been hiding all along then its better we know about it now " With that, he sped after him ready to engage the man and see what the purpose behind his transformation was.

Hidan just grinned as he raised the pike and stabbed himself in the leg. Suddenly, Naruto's eyes widened as pain shot through his system. He grit his teeth and gripped his leg and fell on one knee as blood suddenly seeped into his pants.

In the exact same place where Hidan had just stabbed himself.

Fuu ran to the blondes' side, panic clear on her face. "Are you okay?" She stared at his wound, her gaze returning to the Akatsuki as she understood what was happening.

Both Jinchurikki had realized that Hidan had somehow just linked their bodies together. Naruto finally understood why Hidan was recruited by Akatsuki. He was un-killable by being able to shrug off any injury, and by taking in the blood of his opponent, he could curse them and link their bodies together, and with his immortality, he could run himself through his heart and act like it was nothing. His opponent, however, wouldn't be so lucky.

Hidan cackled as he took in Fu's panicked expression and Naruto's pain filled, furious one. "The pain as my enemy passes from this world radiates through my body and transcends agony into ecstasy!"

'What's wrong with this guy?' Fuu wondered in the back of her mind in disgust over his sadomasochistic tendencies, but that thought was far from the surface of her thoughts. She had to stop Hidan from hurting Naruto through their link

Hidan dropped his scythe, holding onto its cord, before giving her a murderous grinning. Fu's eyes widened as she saw what he was going to do. "No!"

All three of the scythes blades stabbed Hidan diagonally through the stomach, though the man didn't seem to react beyond being pushed back by the impact.

Fu's horrified gaze turned back to Naruto as he coughed up blood, holding his stomach as blood seeped into his clothing as Hidan began to chuckle, his cackles slowly building until insane laughter echoed through the clearing.

Then Hidan's laughter quickly turned to shock as instead of Naruto screaming in pain and dying, he suddenly puffed out of existence.

Hidan's transformation then turned back to normal as both he and Fu had confused looks on them.

" **Earth style; headhunter jutsu** " Hidan heard from underground as he was quickly grabbed by the feet and dragged down into the earth from feet to neck thereby completely immobilizing him.

"I see… so that's why you're considered an S-ranked ninja, it has nothing to do with your skills but your inability to be killed and that curse of yours" Naruto said with a condescending smile

"What the fuck?! How the hell are you still alive, I put my curse on you!" Hidan yelled still unable to believe that the blonde was still alive

"You put a curse on my shadow clone fool, its seems your curse cannot tell the difference between clone and original" Naruto replied

"Hey!" Fu exclaimed, "What the hell is wrong with you? You could have atleast warned me of your plan, I thought that crazy bastard had managed to kill you, ya know"

Naruto merely tilted his head and gave the girl a sheepish grin as he scratched the back of his neck," Sorry about that, I just wanted to see what this idiot was capable of and using a shadow clone seemed like the best way to do so" he said

"Still could have warned me" Fu mumbled, she felt stupid that she fell for something like that

"You know what, fuck rituals! I'm going to kill you with my bare hands." The enraged Jashinist roared apparently about to start digging himself out of the ground with his bare hands while yelling out curses. "I'm going to chop off your dick and feed it to you! I'm going to-

"Not without a head you're not" Naruto took out a kunai, coated it with wind chakra and cut the head off the crazed Jashinist.

' _Well then, that should do it'_

"The fuck?! How dare you cut off my head, now Kakuzu is going to bitch at me all day", the bodiless head of Hidan roared incensed, it continued spewing profanities until Naruto got fed up and sealed it in a scroll.

"Why are you sealing it away? Why not just burn him or something" Fu asked

"Well, he belongs to a group of S-ranked criminals currently hunting down people like us so it would be better to take him back to the village to be questioned" the blonde replied giving her a small smile

"People like us?"

"Hmm, oh right, sorry, I am a-

"Hidan!" A voice called out. All eyes were drawn to its source as Kakuzu entered the clearing the Jinchurikki's eyes turning to him

"So you're still alive huh? Where is Jiraiya?" the blonde jinchurikki asked in a dangerous tone

"In hell, where is Hidan?" countered the ex Taki nin

Naruto pointed at the headless body of Hidan still underground and answered with a glare, "dead, just like you will be soon". He knew that Kakuzu was lying because he could still sense Jiraiya's chakra, plus, if Kakuzu's appearance was anything to go by then he must have used some sort of distraction to escape Jiraiya hoping that he'd find he's partner and escape

Kakuzu growled irritably as more tendrils had snaked down the missing nin's back, he had underestimated Jiraiya and lost all his last remaining hearts and he wasn't planning on losing his last one to this upstart. He was still surprised that Hidan had just been defeated but now he had to escape before Jiraiya got here because the odds were too heavily stacked against him.

Before anymore could be said, Kakuzu opened his mouth, channeling 90% of his remaining chakra before spewing a large wave of fire at the pair. Both jumped back before it exploded in front of them, the shockwave pushing both through the air and creating a large smokescreen as they skidded across the ground. Once their line of sight was clear, they saw that the Akatsuki member was gone.

Sensing someone else approach, they turned to see Jiraiya drop into the clearing from the treetops. The man's haori and shirt were torn slightly in a few places. He sported scratches on his cheek and there were drops of blood on his shirt, but otherwise, he was ok.

"Should we go after him?" Naruto asked ready for pursuit, he could sense where the defeated shinobi was and due to his injuries, he wasn't moving that fast.

"No need, how did you guys fair over here?" the sannin responded panting

Once again Naruto pointed at the headless body of Hidan still underground, "As you can see, I was too awesome for him"

"Kinda a bit too brutal don't you think?" Jiraiya frowned as he looked at the body

"Hmm, well the bastard wouldn't die out of conventional means so I chopped his head off. Plus, believe it or not he's still alive, I just sealed away his head for questioning later" Naruto said as he gave Jiraiya the scroll with Hidan's head in it.

"I see. Well congrats on defeating your first S-ranked shinobi" the sannin took the scroll and sealed it in another scroll

With the danger taken care of, all attention was now turned on Fu. Jiraiya asked the girl to identify herself to which Fu replied with her name, rank, village and how the Akatsuki members found her.

Jiraiya frowned as he listened to the last part, he's spies had reported to him that Akatsuki wouldn't move after jinchurikki for three years, it has only been two and a half years. Could it be possible that he was wrong and the Akatsuki used his spy network to spread false information while they worked in the dark?

He wasn't sure about the answer but if that's what it was, then he needed to warn the other villages and quickly.

Turning back to his student and the Nanabi jinchurikki, both of whom seemed to be just fine, Naruto had a few abrasions on him but they weren't of any significance.

Compared to him, Naruto seemed to have had the easier battle so he congratulated himself for the decision to hand Hidan over to them, it seems he overestimated the ex Yugakure nin after all.

On the other hand, while Fuu had only taken one small slash to the side as far as cuts go, she had obviously taken quite a few blows herself in her earlier battles with the Akatsuki duo. Though all the Jinchurikki had enhanced healing, only the Kyuubi allowed its host to heal from minor wounds in seconds and critical injuries overnight or in moments when its power was applied. While her injures had somewhat healed and there were no bruises, it was still apparent she'd suffered some blunt force trauma, though considering the fact that she was still standing Jiraiya took it as a sign that she was fine.

"Looks like you two had a tough time of it." Naruto said with a smirk eyeing Jiraiya

"You don't know the half of it kid." the Sannin replied.

"Well at atleast your opponent was capable of more than just taijutsu, stupid curses and useless monologues." Naruto complained, he expected a battle for his survival and all he got was a sadistic maniac who wasn't even Gai-sensei level of taijutsu though he quickly frowned as he thought about it.

"I get the feeling that guy wasn't particularly high up on the food chain in their group. He was probably the weakest one seeing as how I easily defeated him" he explained

"Probably, Kakuzu was a different beast. If he still had that remaining heart you destroyed I might have had to use sage mode, just to defeat him" agreed Jiraiya

"I guess, so what now?"

"If these guys have already started hunting down bijuu then we need to warn the other villages. Fortunately, Suna is a couple miles away so we can go there first and drop the girl there"

A few minutes later, both jinchurikki and sannin were atop two clones transformed into hawks, Jiraiya on one and the two teens on another as they flew to Suna.

"So, uh… thanks a lot for saving me" Fu said giving the blonde a small bow

"No problem, those guys were already on my shit list from the beginning" the blonde replied with a grin now fulling facing the dark skinned girl

"You said something about people like us earlier, what did you mean?"

"Hmm, right, I'm a jinchurikki as well."

"Wait, you're just like me?" Fu asked shocked

"Yep, I got the nine tails and you?

"Chomei, I mean the seven tails."

"It has a name?" Naruto seemed stunned at that, who in their right mind would start naming tailed beasts

The girl nodded though, "Yeah, though it likes to be called lucky number seven and it couldn't sense any bijuu in you. It says your chakra can hardly be distinguished from the environment that's why I was so shocked that you're also a jinchurikki"

"Well that's just a technique I use. Never mind that, it sounds like you the two of two of you have a friendly relationship. Are you the one who named him Chomei?" the blonde asked

"No, he told me his name when I was being trained to use his power, apparently all tailed beasts have names" Fu replied further shocking the blonde

He has never heard anyone calling the fox any name other than Kyuubi so he doubted if what the girl said applied to all other beasts. Then again, he recalled when he was battling Gaara and Gamabunta referred to the one tail as " **Shukaku the sand spirit".**

Perhaps they did have names after all, that's something he's gonna have to look into.

"Hey, uh… can you teach me this technique of yours. You know, the one that conceals the bijuu's chakra" Fu requested hopefully

Naruto had explained to her who the Akatsuki were and what they after so she hoped that if she could learn of a way to hide her status as a jinchurikki then maybe it would boost her hopes of survival

"Sorry I can't" the blonde replied though he did feel bad when he saw the disappointed look on the girl. He explained to her why sage mode was unique to him and why he couldn't teach it to her which she accepted but was still disappointed.

It seemed her life was anything but lucky after all, just when Fu thought she had finally created some friends and everything was beginning to look up, she finds out that an organization full of S-ranked ninja was after her. Her heart sunk further when she thought of what her village would say if they found out about this, no doubt they would hate her more claiming that she has brought a curse upon them. She didn't even have her teammates to back her up, though thinking back on it, her teammates wouldn't have been any help either.

She sighed sadly wondering if it would have been better if Akatsuki had taken her after all.

"Hey" Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, "You're not alone in this, we are going to defeat those guys together. You can count on it" the blonde said with determination hoping it would lift her spirits up

"Yeah, hopefully though beating these guys isn't my only problem"

"I see, it's your village then?" Naruto asked getting a surprised look from the girl, she wanted to ask how he knew but then remembered that he was also a jinchurikki which meant that he was probably going through the same situation as well so opted to keep quiet.

"Does it… ever get any better?" the Nanabi jinchurikki finally asked after what seemed like an eternity of silence, she was looking away from Naruto as she asked this question because she didn't want the boy to see her resigned expression.

In her heart she knew that though she was asking that question, only a miracle would turn the villager's views of her.

Naruto frowned as he thought of his own situation, he didn't know if he's life was better. Three years ago, he would have definitely said that it was but now it looking back on it, seemed he just wanted to believe what he wanted to believe.

"I honestly don't know" he finally responded truthfully. "But I know that having someone you can talk to helps."

Fu only gave a bitter laugh at that, "Easier said than done, I've been isolated and ostracized by the entire village all my life and now it's gotten to the point that I've since accepted my fate in Taki so my only hope of ever having friends is outside the village like during the chunnin exams"

"I'm sorry to hear that, but you can always count on me as a friend and fellow jinchurikki. Maybe we can send letters to each other?" Naruto said with a smile as he put a hand on her shoulder

"I'd like that" said Fu returning the smile

"You know, this really is a small world, you are already the second jinchurikki I've met and as soon as we reach Suna, I will introduce you to the first" the blonde said with a grin

"Really, who is he?" Fu asked obviously excited with opportunity to make a new friend and a fellow jinchurikki as well

"Gaara, he was a crazed maniac at first, he believed that only killing people would prove his existence to the world but after our battle he mellowed out." The blonde said fondly, "I know, I'm kinda excited to see him after so long, I'm interested in seeing what he's doing these days"

"Wait a minute… Gaara? As in the Kazekage?"

0_0

0_0

"Gaara?! Gaara is the… Kazekage?! The hell?"

 **With Kakuzu**

Kakuzu was running through the woods with an angry look on him, he has truly never been this incensed in his entire life. First he loses four of his hearts, his stupid partner somehow gets himself killed which he found to be quite ironic considering the Jashinist was self-proclaimed 'immortal' and now here he was, still looking for a heart to restock.

Honestly at this point, it didn't even matter if he run into some weakling, all he wanted was a heart.

His mood darkened further when he heard a voice requesting his presence through the Akatsuki ring. It seemed the leader was somehow aware that Hidan had died which got him to question what else could be done through the ring other than communicating and locating someone.

'None of that matters now' he thought as continued hopping on trees. He didn't have the time or patience to deal with Akatsuki right now.

'Honestly, you would think being so close to a major village I'd run into some ninja' the rogue nin thought with a growl.

When reached the Suna desert, the Akatsuki member run into quite possibly the worst ninja he would ever wish of running into in his current state.

"Kukukuku, such an interesting coincidence to run into an old friend, eh Kakuzu-kun?" the man said in his usual playful yet condescending tone.

Very pale skin, golden eyes with slitted pupils, purple markings around his eyes and fang-like teeth. This person needed no introduction at all.

"Orochimaru" Kakuzu growled back. When it came to Orochimaru, Kakuzu knew that there was no such thing as coincidence. This day just wasn't his day.

Orochimaru stood on top of his main summon Manda with a menacing grin plastered on his face and Sasuke and Kabuto on either side of him.

"What the hell do you want?" Kakuzu asked making sure not to make any unnecessary moves less he regrets it.

"How rude, is that any way to treat an old friend?" the snake sannin commented with a fake hurt look

"What do you want Orochimaru?"

"So eager" the sannin shook his head as he tsk'd resembling the way a parent would act when scolding a child. "Well since you're such in a hurry to die I'll tell you"

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at that and assumed a defensive position and leaking his killer intent in the process. Still Orochimaru ignored him or just didn't acknowledge his actions as he continued speaking.

"You and I are both ambassadors of immortality Kakuzu-kun, we have our own ways of pursuing it but the end result is still the same. We both desire to live forever and achieve our own ambitions and thus we have conditioned our bodies to be able to withstand and match our ambitions. So I thought to myself, what would happen if we merged our bodies into one being? We'd be one step closer to true immortality. What do you say Kakuzu-kun?"

"Tempting, but I'll have to pass" Kakuzu responded not really liking where this conversation was going.

"Kukukuku, but I'm afraid you don't have a choice" the sannin said giving a look to Sasuke. "Would you please do me the honors Sasuke-kun?"

The only warning Kakuzu got was Sasuke appearing in front of him with a sword in hand.

Yep. Today really wasn't Kakuzu's day.

 **Suna**

No matter how many times Jiraiya and Fu told him, he still couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. As soon as they reached the gates of Sunagakure, Naruto took off at top speed for the Kazekage tower. He was so excited that he almost run into a dozen people so decided to take to the rooftops instead.

The blonde sage couldn't keep the grin off his face.

During the entire training trip, he had always found himself wondering if it was truly possible for the hidden leaf village to look past his jinchurikki status and finally accept him.

He couldn't count the nights he sat up wondering if he would get the chance to settle down and have children who wouldn't be tormented by the village because of him.

And now it looks like he finally had the answer.

If it was true and Gaara really was Kazekage then it really was possible.

Just like him, the one tailed jinchurikki had been criticized and shunned by the Suna citizens, even he's own father had even tried to have him assassinated and he retaliated by murdering people to prove his own existence further straining the relationship between village and jinchurikki.

But now just two and a half years after Gaara stopped murdering people, he actually managed to earn their admiration and acknowledgement so much so that they named him fifth Kazekage. It really gave him hope.

Naruto was so lost in thought that he didn't recall when he reached the kage tower or even run up the stairs but he just opened the door of the kage office with fervor ignoring the receptionist's protests and there he was…

Fair skin, green eyes, short, spiky red hair, a kanji for love tattooed on the left part of his forehead and now wearing Kage robes. The now fifth Kazekage had an irritated look on his face which quickly turned to shock when he saw who just rudely entered his office.

"N-Naruto?"

"You bet your ass I am, you're the Kazekage now?" the blonde countered walking into the office and giving the redhead a hug.

"Uh, Yes I am" Gaara replied with a small smile though he was surprised with the hug, he couldn't remember the last time anyone has ever done that and what was more surprising was the fact that he's sand did not move to protect him.

"I'm sorry Kazekage-sama" the receptionist said giving him a low bow. "I tried to stop him but he just wouldn't stop to listen"

"It's alright, Naruto is a close friend of mine" the redhead said waving her away.

"Three years later and you're still a handful" he said to the blonde who merely gave him a foxy grin

"Trust me he's even worse than he was then" Jiraiya quipped from a window giving the two a smile

"Jiraiya-sama"

"Kazekage-sama"

Gaara nodded in greeting as he took his eyes to Jiraiya's neighbor on the window, a Taki genin he recognized as Fu.

"Fu? What are you doing here?"

"Kazekage-sama, I was attacked on my way to the village by the Akatsuki and Jiraiya-sama and Naruto-kun saved me" Fu responded respectfully though she couldn't keep the blush off her face

"Akatsuki?"

"Yes, that's why we are here. To warn you about them" Jiraiya answered in a serious tone.

Gaara nodded and brought his eyes back to Naruto, he didn't see it at first but now he could see how his fellow jinchurikki had grown. He was no longer wearing orange clothing but black shinobi pants, boots and a dark blue long sleeved shirt with a black cloak with orange flames at the bottom on top of it all. But what truly caught the young kage's attention was the power he could feel radiating off the blonde and his eyes; golden yellow eyes with bar-like pupils and orange markings around them.

"You've changed" Gaara commented with a raised brow

"Hmm, oh you mean my eyes, just a product of my training. I'll tell you all about it when you're done with the perv"

"I'd like that" Gaara responded with a smile as Naruto and Fu left the room to give Jiraiya and him some privacy.

 **Orochimaru's hideout**

Orochimaru couldn't get the grin off his face as he watched Kabuto experiment on an unconscious Kakuzu. The Akatsuki member had put up a good desperate fight for survival but Sasuke prevailed in the end.

He watched fascinated and thoroughly pleased as Kabuto put Kimimaro's heart into the ex Taki nin where he's stolen hearts would normally be earning a pained groan from the man. Anyone else seeing the this would have surely been creeped out but it only formed goosebumps on his Orochimaru's person.

"May I ask you a question Orochimaru-sama?" kabuto asked his mind still on his work

"You may Kabuto"

"You've wanted an Uchiha to be your vessel, its practically the main reason you wanted Sasuke as your apprentice so why have you suddenly chosen Kakuzu as your next one?"

Orochimaru chuckled at that fully expecting the question, "To be honest I've always been interested in Kakuzu's technique and yes I still want an Uchiha vessel but… Itachi still remains my primary target" the sannin said moving closer to Kabuto as he continued watching on.

"You see, ever since Sasuke-kun came here I've always known that he wouldn't allow me to get his body unless I forced it with all my power, the boy's a genius yes but he's not as smart as he thinks he is. Chances are that he would have betrayed me had after he's training was done" he finished

"So why continue to train him?" Kabuto pressed, he was clearly getting even more curious about he's master's plans

"To hunt down his brother of course." The snake sannin said as he started inspecting the blood samples and the data Kabuto was collecting. "When we're done with his training I will give him a team and allow him to go after his brother and when that glorious day comes that they do battle, you and I won't be far away Kabuto-kun"

"The day Itachi-kun and Sasuke-kun have their long awaited battle… I will truly be invincible" Orochimaru stated in a menacing yet determined tone that quickly changed into full blown maniacal laughter

 **END CHAPTER**

 **A few things;**

 **For those expecting a great battle between Naruto and Hidan, well… I'm sorry but Hidan just isn't that impressive and this Naruto is smarter and stronger than Cannon-Naruto so… that's exactly how I pictured their battle playing out.**

 **Besides this chapter wasn't meant to reveal Naruto's strength, I just wanted to show that he's capable of going toe to toe with Akatsuki members without having to rely on Kurama.**

 **And the whole thing with Hidan's curse not being able to spot the difference between clone and original, I got it from a filler episode, don't know how legit it is.**

 **Another thing, as you can see I've given Orochimaru a bigger role to play in this fic, I intend to make him as much of a threat to the elemental nations as the Akatsuki itself.**

 **And finally, this chapter was supposed to be posted 2 weeks ago but my new beta couldn't do the job due to unexplained circumstances therefore I apologize for the grammatical errors. But I do promise that next chapter will definitely be Beta'd.**

 **PHEW! I'm done.**

 **Feedback is always appreciated**

 **SARAVAN OUT!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto but if I did…**

"Hidan and Kakuzu are both dead."

The commanding yet slightly sexy voice of Pain stated. It was clear that the man was not in a good mood, truthfully speaking he never was and now it just somehow seemed to get worse, and who could blame him? He had gathered the most dangerous s-ranked shinobi in history to bring peace to the world and then suddenly two of them drops dead before their missions truly begin.

Someone was going to pay dearly.

All members of the Akatsuki were surprised by the revelation, even Itachi looked quite shocked at that. Even though he would never show it, he felt quite elated that Hidan was actually dead, the one time he was forced to be partners with Jashinist had been the worst mission of his life. He shuddered slightly as the memory resurfaced, the former Anbu had to give a bit of respect to Kakuzu for dealing with Hidan every day since his introduction to the criminal organization.

"What the hell?" an equally surprised Kisame said. He really liked that duo, or, more specifically, he really liked messing with them. "The zombie brothers are dead?"

"Quite ironic that the so-called "immortals" are the first to die..." Sasori commented.

"Who killed them, Leader-sama?" Itachi asked, his monotone expression giving nothing away even though he really was interested in finding out who killed Hidan.

"It is still unclear," Pain admitted. "though all signs point to Orochimaru. Kakuzu's ring and Orochimaru's Akatsuki ring are at the same location, and I can't sense Hidan's. I'm guessing it's sealed somewhere."

"Woww!" Tobi awed, earning an annoyed expression from everybody, except Kisame, who seemed to find the mask-wearing fool to be quite funny. "Orochimaru must have gotten super strong to be able defeat the zombie brothers!"

"So it would seem." the Akatsuki leader agreed.

"Ever since he left the organization, Orochimaru has always stayed clear of us... But now, all of the sudden, the snake has the audacity to actually attack us." Konan pointed out as she assessed this new situation. "He's plotting something, something big."

"Nevertheless, such actions will not be tolerated. If he really wants to provoke us, then it must mean that he's at least ready to deal with the consequences." said Pain, giving everyone of the Akatsuki a look before finally deciding. "I will go to the sound village myself and flush him out."

"But Naga- Pain, wouldn't it be better if Itachi and Kisame went instead? I'm pretty sure Orochimaru is expecting you to hunt him down, and knowing him, he's probably got something up his sleeves." Konan appealed with her last friend, her concern for him clear in her tone.

Seriously, she knew very well just how powerful Nagato really was, only a few shinobi could ever hope to touch him, but Orochimaru was a different kind of shinobi. There was a good reason why he was called a "once in a lifetime genius" in Konoha. This was the same shinobi who attacked Itachi despite the fact that he knew that the odds were stacked against him, went to one of the big 5 in Suna and killed them, and did it again in Konoha just a few weeks later.

When it came to Orochimaru, it didn't matter how powerful you were, the fact remained that if he was actually willing to face you in battle then that means he definitely had something up his sleeves.

"It matters not what the snake has planned, I will go and he shall realize the true power of God." Pain commanded in a tone that invited no objections, and yet…

"I agree with Konan-san." Itachi said, surprising everyone. "Kisame and I are much closer to the Hidden Sound Village than you, so we can easily go there and hunt down Orochimaru."

The Uchiha criminal was rewarded with looks of astonishment, even Pain raised his brows to signal his surprise. Ever since he joined Akatsuki, Itachi has never volunteered for any mission that would most likely involve battle. It was actually well known within Akatsuki that, despite the violent past of the ex-anbu, the man himself avoided battle and would most of the time put his opponents in a fetal genjutsu rather than fight them head on, so why would Itachi volunteer for such a mission when all signs pointed to Orochimaru seemingly being ready for them?

While everyone else was pondering about this, for Itachi, the objective was clear: He was going to do everything in his power to avoid any meeting or confrontation between Pain and Sasuke, at all possible costs. The very idea of his little brother being so close to Orochimaru filled him with sleepless nights, adding Pain to the equation is something he wouldn't even dear think about.

Itachi had no idea how powerful their leader was, but any man capable of controlling a criminal organization of 10 S-ranked shinobi was a man to fear.

No! he won't allow this to happen, he was even willing to attack the Akatsuki leader himself in order to protect his brother.

"So you want to go snake hunting huh? I like it." Kisame said with an excited grin, his shark like face lighting up in anticipation. "I was kinda pissed that we ran from Jiraiya 3 years ago, now I get another chance to tussle with another Sannin."

"Not so fast shark boy, I already declared Orochimaru to be my target. So if there's anyone going to Sound, it's me." Deidera spoke for the first time. "Besides, I've been dying to display my art on a village, only one C3 is enough for such a lousy village, hmm."

"Get in line, girly, we've already decided. And how many times do I have to tell you that blowing things up isn't art, real art is-

"Enough!" Pain ordered, he wasn't in any mood to deal with stupid arguments.

"Eh, Leader-sama..." Tobi's voice was heard as he raised his hand, waiting to be given permission to talk, and Pain nodded. "Perhaps I should go to sound."

"No one is interested in your stupidity, Tobi, I'm going to sound and there's nothing this blue fish can do about it."

"How about if I cut your legs, eh?"

"True art doesn't need legs, hmm."

"But that's what I'm talking about, Deidera-senpai! Everyone here is so cool and dangerous, so I want to go so that I can become just like you, pretty please?" Tobi begged childishly, which only served to annoy Deidera all the more.

"I said shut up, Tobi! This mission is mine and I-"

"I'm not going to say it again, enough." Their leader commanded in a dangerously low tone.

A few minutes of silence passed as Nagato considered his choices. On one hand, he really wanted to personally search the snake himself and show him what happens when one defied a god, but then again, Itachi and Kisame were also fully capable of doing so. He also had to put Konan's reservations into consideration, no matter how powerful he was, Nagato knew that Orochimaru was too sneaky an individual to not have something up his sleeves. Perhaps he was even doing this to draw out Nagato himself for the rinnegan, or Itachi for the sharingan, or even both.

And so he decided…

"Tobi, you and Zetsu will search for him. I will give you the exact coordinates of the Akatsuki rings, because it is high time you proved yourself useful to the Akatsuki."

"Yesss!" Tobi exclaimed obnoxiously, receiving an annoyed look from Deidera.

"Though I do have to warn you, failure will not be tolerated." the leader warned.

"Don't worry boss-man, we've got this in the bag!"

 **SUNA**

Kankuro was not a good cook, which was quite surprising to Naruto, considering the fact the man wore make up. He would claim it to be war paint, but considering Suna was not in any war, the blonde still maintained his belief that it was make up stolen from his sister.

Which was another thing he found disheartening to hear that Temari was an even worse cook than both their brothers... No wonder Gaara was once demented.

By the way,

"Where is Temari anyway? I haven't seen her since we came." the blonde asked the two Sabaku brothers as he tried not to grimace from the taste of the food.

He was definitely going to a ramen stand after this.

"She's in Konoha discussing a chunin exams with the Godaime and some other trade business." Gaara responded having already finished his meal. It seems he had gotten used to the atrocious food.

Poor Gaara.

"She will be back in two weeks' time though." Kankuro finished with a satisfied smile on him and a hand on his belly.

Stupid bastard.

Naruto really felt jealous that Jiraiya was somewhere else having a proper meal while doing his "research", though it did give him a small smile when he saw Fuu also struggling to keep the food down.

"So, have you made any preparations for the Akatsuki?"

"Yes, traps and battle strategies are being set up as we speak, plus, Master Jiraiya was kind enough to help us create a better seal for the village." Gaara explained. "We will not allow the Akatsuki to enter this village, much less get what they're coming after."

"That's good to hear, we need to put an end to those bastards as soon as possible."

Their conversation was halted when a messenger entered the room, delivering a message requesting for Gaara and Kankuro to the council chambers.

"Excuse us." the two brothers said

No sooner had they disappeared had Naruto stood up as well, and, although he didn't wait for a response, he said to his fellow jinchuriki,"Great, let's go to a ramen stand before they come back!"

 **Fifteen minutes later**

"So what do think of Gaara? Great guy, huh?" the blonde asked, mid-slurp, therefore unable to see the blush donned on Fuu's face.

"Yeah, quite young as well, it is quite inspirational to meet such a young Kage who also happens to be a jinchuriki." she answered, getting a grin from her companion.

"Yeah, it is!" he agreed. "I guess seeing what he has accomplished finally answers your question, huh? Things can get better for us."

"Yeah." the girl smiled softly.

"So, have you gotten in touch with your village?" Naruto asked, getting a frown from the girl.

"Yeah, they're sending a couple of jonin to come and get me, and Kazekage-sama is also going to send his shinobi to escort me, as well. They should be here in two weeks' time." she answered, though she really hoped that they never showed up.

The few weeks spent outside the village would have been the best moments of her life, barring the Akatsuki attack, of course. She had finally made some friends, felt welcome, and she was actually growing attached to the Village Hidden in the Sand. Nobody gave her eyes of disapproval here, no insults, glares, or mistreatment, and a lot of people actually treated her like an honored guest with so much respect because they had spotted her with Gaara in the streets.

The Nanabi jinchurikki could only imagine how her life would be like living in such a place. She wanted to plead to her village to allow her to stay in Suna, but she know that it would be impossible, hell, they might even accuse her of being a traitor for simply suggesting such a thing.

"You know, constantly worrying about something doesn't really help your state of mind." Naruto commented as he sat down his fifth bowl.

"I know; I just can't help it."

"You guys are still hungry?" the two heard, and when Fuu turned around, she found Gaara staring at them with a raised brow.

"Well, uh… we… er..."

"Kankuro's cooking sucks." Naruto replied bluntly, not bothering to turn.

"Is that so?" the young Kage asked as he joined them, sitting next to Fu.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you haven't tried to kill him yet."

That actually got the redhead to smile, "Trust me Uzumaki, if you've ever tasted Temari's cooking, Kankuro would seem like a gourmet chef."

"Why not hire a cook?" Fu asked curiously

"We do have one, Kankuro just likes to cook sometimes."

"Well, he sucks."

"Just don't tell him that."

The three jinchuriki spent close to an hour at the ramen stand talking about different topics, and it could have been even longer if one of Jiraiya's agents hadn't disturbed them.

"Excuse me, Kazekage-sama, Fu-san; Jiraiya-sama has requested for Naruto-kun's presence at the hotel. He didn't say what it was about, but he did say that it was urgent." the middle aged man say with a bow

"Well I guess that's my que to leave. Let me see what the perv wants." the blonde said, standing up. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

With that, he disappeared with a wind vortex sunshin

"So…" Gaara started looking at his fellow jinchurikki, "What do you think of Suna?"

The girl's face practically lit up at that, Gaara never thought that he could ever hear someone else sound so patriotic about a place that wasn't their home, and he did smile happily when she told him about how welcome she felt in this place, being a jinchurikki himself, he understood just how toxic one's own village can be towards you and your state of health, so seeing her happy warmed his heart.

"I'm really glad you like it." he told her. "Have you had a tour around the village?"

"Not really, I didn't want to trespass" she responded.

In Taki practically everywhere she went was trespassing, whether it was in the streets, the stores, even at the waterfall. The people always made sure to make her feel unwanted, therefore she learnt to keep to herself in her own home or training grounds. That way nobody would reprimand her for, "daring to breath the same air as them".

 _Old habits..._ she thought miserably at those memories.

"Well, perhaps I could show you around." he stood up, his cheeks the slightest shade of pink, though he looked away to hide it. "That is… if you're not too busy."

Fu gave him a smile as she stood up as well, "I'd love to, Kazekage-sama"

"You don't have to be so formal, all my friends can call me Gaara."

"Friend?"

"Friend."

The pair paid for their food and started their walk as they learnt more about each other, by the time they were done neither realized that it was well past midnight.

 **Meanwhile**

"So, what's up?" Naruto asked from the hotel window having just arrived, though his guard went up as soon as he saw his sensei's serious expression. "Is something wrong Jiraiya?"

"I don't know; you tell me." the older sage responded evenly, his expression as serious as the blonde has ever seen it, hell, the atmosphere was quite literally cold.

"I don't understand."

"I hear the Kazekage is creeping into your girl, care to explain?" the sannin moved closer to the blonde, eyeing Naruto with a penetrative gaze.

 _Yeah, this wasn't creepy at all._

"What the hell are you talking abo-"

"Naruto, I'm serious. What's going on with Fu and Gaara?" the sannin placed both of his hands on the jinchuriki's shoulder, his face 5 inches away. The blonde could practically feel the warm air coming out Jiraiya's nose and mouth.

"What the-? Nothing is going on, they're just friends, that's all." Naruto tried to shake his sensei's hands off of him, but his grip was too firm.

"Oh really? What about the long gazes, the subtle flirts, the blushing?" the sannin proceeded to shake Naruto. "The blushing, man! That's a dangerous sign right there!"

"Uh-huh..." the blonde gave his clearly insane sensei a sweat drop expression, which got the said to raise his arms in the air as a sign of frustration.

"I can't believe this..." the sannin exclaimed. "I have taught you many things, Naruto, more than I have ever taught my previous students, but how in the hell have I failed to educate you in the arts of women and seduction, huh?" Jiraiya was now kneeling in front of Naruto, both his hands around the blonde's legs and his eyes in the verge of tears "Please, at least tell me you did something with those girls at the brothel…"

"Jiraiya, I-"

"That's it, I'm a failure. I acknowledge it. First Nagato, then Minato, and now you. I claim to be the greatest teacher and yet I couldn't even open your eyes to the wonders of the female form." The devastated man cried.

Well technically, the statement wasn't completely correct, as Minato was popular with kunoichi, but still, the man settled down way too early for Jiraiya's tastes.

"Your only option now is to kidnap Gaara and-"

"Hey!" Naruto scowled, clearly hurt that his master thought he was so clueless with women. "First of all; Gaara and Fu are just friends, there's nothing going on there-"

"That's what he wants you to think." Jiraiya interjected

"Shut up! Secondly; I didn't do anything with those girls because I'm not stupid enough to give my first time to some whore in a brothel! And thirdly, I'm not romantically interested in Fu, alright?! If I was, trust me Jiraiya, she'd be mine by now." the jinchurikki finished smugly.

"Peh!" Jiraiya snorted, "That's what you nice guys want to believe, I mean who do you think you attracting with those lines; "what's your name?", "what's your sign?", but as soon as you buy that wine, Gaara just creeps up from behind and asks her what her interests are, who she's been with, things that makes her smile, and what numbers to dial, she's gonna be here for a while, and she's gonna call her crew, and he's gonna call he's crew, and they can rendezvous at the bar around two!" the pervert breathed heavily when he was finished with his tirade.

"Eh… the hell are you quoting Biggie Smalls?"

"That doesn't matter, what matters right now is that you've lost another girl to another one of your so-called friends."

"Okay, this is now becoming stupid." the blonde's hand sat on his forehead signaling his frustration.

"Is it? I say this is becoming a trend. Next thing you know-"

"Is this why you called me here?"

"Huh? Yeah. Well... This, and also the scroll on the table." Jiraiya said, a bit flustered that he actually forgot the real reason he called his student.

When Naruto walked to the table and picked up the scroll, what he read gave him the shock of his life.

 _Name: Karin Uzumaki_

 _Age: 16_

 _Gender: Female_

 _Clan: Uzumaki_

 _Rank: N/A_

 _Classification: Sensor, Medic Nin_

 _Affiliation: Otogakure_

"There's… another one?" Naruto couldn't keep the disbelief out of his tone.

"Yeah."

It was real. There was another Uzumaki in this world. He couldn't believe it. Naruto read over the details again just to make sure that he hadn't misread.

He had spoken a lot about reviving his clan, bringing back their lost glory and seeing their insignia on the backs of its members. But his hopes of ever finding another Uzumaki were rather slim. He had always thought that he would have to be put in the CRA (Clan Restoration Act) to regrow the clan, but now…

Maybe this was only the beginning, maybe they were more Uzumaki out there. Surely a few of them would have managed to escape the destruction of Uzu just like Karin's parents, and if they were, then he would surely find them and bring them home.

He looked at the picture on the scroll again.

 _Karin, huh? Well, just give me a few more days, Karin... I'm coming for you._ he thought as he looked over the information on her again.

"Is she Orochimaru's prisoner or subordinate?" he asked his sensei.

"Subordinate." Jiraiya responded seriously before taking a sip of his sake. "Reports say that her parents left Uzu right before it was destroyed and they took refuge in Kusagakure. Nothing much is known from there, but some time three years ago, Orochimaru apparently took some interest in her and her chakra, so he recruited her in his entourage."

"I see..."

That was not something Naruto ever wanted or expected to hear, anything that has to do with Orochimaru was just bad news. That man did the vilest of things and anyone linked with him was bound to be messed up. Orochimaru was quite honestly one of the few people that Naruto despised with a passion.

His heart sank as he considered the possibility of Karin happily carrying out Orochimaru's distasteful deeds. He didn't want to think of what he might be forced to do if it turned out to be the case.

"She is currently in charge of Orochimaru's southern hideout, though I'm not quite sure of its exact location." Jiraiya said seriously.

"We should go." Naruto looked at his master with a pleading expression. "This girl is possibly one of the few remaining full blood Uzumaki, the closest person I could ever have to a relative."

 _Other than your crazy ass, of course._

"That's all well and good, Naruto, but what if she turns out to be dedicated to Orochimaru like Kabuto?" Jiraiya asked causing a flinch to appear on Naruto's face. "Not only that, but what if we find Orochimaru and his lackeys there as well? This could turn out to be a suicide mission, you know."

Jiraiya understood just how important this girl was to his student, but they also had to take a lot of things into consideration here.

"I know." the blonde said, his hands clenching into fists as he also considered this situation. "Anything that has to do with Orochimaru has danger written all over it, and I know there's a possibility of facing that snake, but… I can't just ignore this. This is the biggest opportunity I have to start reviving my clan, so I-"

"And If she turns out to be an enemy?" Jiraiya asked in a hardened tone, their gazes locked on each other.

"I… well, I–I guess I'll have to do what needs to be done." he answered, though he couldn't find the conviction to back up those words.

Could he truly end up killing the only hope for Uzu's legacy even if she was too dangerous to be left alive? He didn't know.

A few minutes of silence passed before Jiraiya finally said, "If we end up falling into a trap?"

"Then we'll reverse summon ourselves to Mt. Myoboku."

 _Please, Jiraiya..._

Jiraiya finally relented after what seemed like an hour to the blonde. "Fine, we'll start off tomorrow morning. We might even make a detour to Kumo to warn them about the Akatsuki. But, I'm cautioning you Naruto, don't put all your hopes in this girl."

Naruto's expression lit up. He would have been jumping for joy, but he was now too mature for that.

"Now, if you excuse me, I would like to enjoy the rest of the night doing my research." the Sannin said before he walked to the window giggling perversely. "You know, due to the village's unfavorable location and weather, there is only one hot spring, and the place is always filled with gorgeous babes-"

He didn't get to complete his sentence before Naruto forcefully kicked him out, breaking the closed window in the process.

 **Border of the Land of Fire**

Itachi couldn't help but frown as he looked at the clearing that his partner had just filled with the blood of a hunter-nin from the hidden mist. Samehada was blood stained with Kisame himself having some spots of blood on his Akatsuki cloak. In situations like these, he would always allow the former hidden mist swordsman to deal with it, seeing as the shark-man was always bloodthirsty.

The Uchiha preferred to use genjutsu on them but since he's health started deteriorating at a quick pace, he participated in as less battles as he possibly could. Though seeing how Kisame was slaughtering his former comrades, Itachi was almost tempted to ignore the illness.

Speaking of his teammate, Itachi's frown deepened as he thought of the past month. Pain had requested Kisame and Kakuzu to go to Amekagure citing that he needed the two for their large chakra reserves, though for what, he didn't say.

Itachi had been forced to tolerate Hidan as his temporary partner for over one month and he could honestly say that he really missed Kisame during that period, and his respect for Kakuzu grow immensely.

" _I bet Pain called for Kisame and Kakuzu because he needed help gangbanging that bitch Konan, hahahaha! Oh man, I'm so funny."_

Itachi fiercely shook his head to banish that terrible memory.

If he wasn't already scarred from his Anbu days, then the Jashinist would have surely taken it upon himself to do so.

The Uchiha liked to think of himself as a pacifist, but during that time he was rather tempted to use **Tsukuyomi** on the Jashinist and cut apart his body piece by piece. Hell, Itachi would even bet that Hidan was the reason his condition was reaching a critical stage, hypertension was never good for a sick person.

What did worry the ex Anbu most though, was the fact that Kisame couldn't remember anything after coming back from Ame. Itachi had tried to enter the swordsman's mind but somehow Kisame's memories were completely blank from the previous month.

No barriers, traps, or genjutsu trying to protect the memories. but just plain blank. This kind of thing pointed to Madara also getting involved, but he felt he had to erase the memories, and Itachi had no idea why.

Was he trying to hide it from him? Did it have something to do with the Hidden Leaf? Were they working on a different objective while the elemental nations were busy trying to protect their bijuu?

There were too many questions surrounding the Akatsuki at the moment and very little answers were provided.

Itachi couldn't help but fear for the state of the shinobi world. Madara, Pain, Orochimaru… All these people were planning something, and he knew that it would never be good.

He wanted to warn Jiraiya, at least, but the toad sannin was really good at covering his tracks, and going to the Hidden Leaf now was not only suspicious, but it was also really dangerous for him, especially considering the state of his health.

"So, any chance that we might run into your little brother?" Kisame asked with a grin, pulling Itachi out of his thoughts.

"I don't know, but if we do then, it's inevitable that Orochimaru will be with him." The Uchiha responded.

Just a few hours ago, Pain had notified them of the three tails' reformation.

Three years had passed since Itachi killed Yagura, the Mizukage, thereby also killing the Bijuu. Akatsuki had been forced to wait for three years for the Bijuu to be reformed, so that they could start hunting them down, and apparently they were now assigned with capturing this one, and just so happened to be Oto.

Their leader had even taken the time to warn Itachi not to kill it again, or else he would suffer the wrath of God.

 _Yeah, right_. He thought. The Uchiha wanted to snort at the threat, but that was not befitting of an Uchiha.

"I wonder why he didn't just send Tobi, or Madara, or whatever the hell he likes to call himself, considering that the damn thing is reforming in Oto." Kisame wondered as he dusted his cloak with his hand.

"He'll have his hands full searching for Orochimaru, the snake never stays in one place, and if they do find each other, I'm pretty sure it won't be easy to kill him." Itachi once again responded, his mind worrying about his little brother. He hoped Sasuke wouldn't be stupid enough to come between those two.

Itachi's eyes narrowed as a swirl appeared before them signaling Tobi's presence. Has he already found Orochimaru?

"Are you ever going to smile?" the masked man asked Itachi, to which he didn't respond.

"So…" Kisame gave Obito a curious look using his Samehada to point at the masked man, "Are we supposed to call you Tobi, or, Madara, when we are alone like this?"

Obito merely shrugged, not caring either way, his name was forfeit the minute Rin died.

"I'm guessing you haven't found Orochimaru yet." Itachi deduced.

Obito put his hand in his pockets and took out two Akatsuki rings, one for Kakuzu, the other for Orochimaru himself, and a note that read, "Sorry, I've gone out for a bit."

"That man is more slippery than we could ever give him credit for. I'm beginning to think he might not even be in Oto." he said as he shook his head.

"Possibly."

Just then, both Itachi and Obito's eyes transformed to Mangyeko, each putting each other in a genjutsu. Itachi found himself in Obito's dimension, and Obito found himself in a world of black and white, yet, somehow, both of them were in the same place, with just 3 meters being the only distance between them.

"What did you want with Kisame this past month?" Itachi asked, not wasting a second.

Again, Obito shrugged nonchalantly, something that greatly annoyed Itachi as the masked man answered, "Nothing much, Pain needed his chakra is all."

"What for?" he insisted.

"To strengthen Akatsuki." the masked man answered, still coy. "I searched for Hidan's ring all over Orochimaru's hideouts, but I couldn't find it. Pain himself said he couldn't sense it, so that means Orochimaru was not involved with Hidan's death. So I started wondering… You wouldn't have something to do with it, would you, Itachi–kun?"

Itachi narrowed his eyes at the insinuation. Of course, he would have been more than happy to kill that insane bastard, but what would drive "Madara" to suspect him?

"Why do you think it was me?" he asked curiously.

"If it wasn't Orochimaru, then the only possible outcome points at the Hidden Leaf. We just got intel that Jiraiya is currently in Suna, 25 miles away from where Hidan's ring's signal was cut. Coincidence, eh?" Obito asked with a tilt of his head.

"Yes, it was a coincidence." Itachi responded bluntly.

"Three years ago, you purposely killed the Mizukage, knowing that he was a jinchuriki, and then a few months later you disclosed our objectives to Kakashi and Jiraiya. Another coincidence, eh?"

Itachi's eyebrow twitched at that. What did Madara want him to say? That he was sorry? That he wouldn't do it again?

Fuck that.

And so he settled for, "A bad mistake on my part."

Obito simply chucked, "Well, I guess everybody does make mistakes every once in a while."

The masked man stepped closer to Itachi, entering his own dimension. He put his hand on the ex Anbu's shoulder as their genjutsu started to dissolve. "All we can do is make sure it never happens again."

When the genjutsu completely dissolved, Itachi only had to look at the still grinning Kisame to confirm that less than a second had passed in the real world.

"The three tails is south of Otogakure." Obito informed them as a swirl was formed sucking Obito's body in it. Before he completely disappeared, he added, "We don't expect any more mistakes."

"Well, at least this saves us the time of looking everywhere for the damn thing." Kisame said as the two started walking.

 **Jiraiya and Naruto**

 _Adrenaline was not good for Naruto._ Jiraiya decided. The blonde was already an over-enthusiastic person supplemented by an endless supply of chakra, so adding more excitement to the equation was pretty much dangerous for him, and everyone else involved.

At the break of dawn, the young sage woke him up, and pretty much pushed him to get himself ready for their trip to Oto, having already done so himself.

They said their goodbyes to the Kazekage and Fu before the day could properly start, forcing Naruto to explain to the young Kage why he was leaving so abruptly, though he did wish him good fortunes, as he was able to understand why going to Otogakure was so important for the Uzumaki.

He was almost tempted to force the blonde to question Gaara about his "friendship" with Fu, but he thought better of it.

What annoyed Jiraiya the most though was that the little shit was in such a hurry that he didn't even give him any chance to do some final 'research' on the beautiful ladies of Suna before Naruto quickly summoned a clone, transformed it into a falcon, and started flying at top speeds. They have been traveling at over 150 miles/ per hour since then, which was pretty ridiculous just thinking about. At this rate, they were going to be in Otogakure in just under two days.

Jiraiya couldn't even remember when they passed the desert, all he could think about was to making sure not to fall off the transformed clone.

"Do you have to be so damn fast?!" he asked, his words barely even heard due to the strong winds in the air smashing them in the face as they flew on.

"I'm sorry, Pervysage, but if this girl truly exists, then Orochimaru is the last person she should be near! She's my family and quite possibly the only hope I may have of meeting a full blooded Uzumaki." The blonde turned his head to his master as he responded.

"Just don't let your guard down, spending any sort of time with the current Orochimaru is bound to get you messed up, and you don't want to give this girl any chance to put a kunai in you simply because you're too trusting for your own good." the Toad Sannin advised his charge.

 _The last thing you need is more betrayals, Naruto._ he thought solemnly.

"Got it!" Naruto shouted back with a grin, all without a clue of his master's thoughts. "By the way, do you know that earth style jutsu Kakuzu used to block my attack?"

"Yeah, it's called the **Iron Skin,** why?"

"Well, I'd really like to learn it. You know, sparring with Gaara just showed how much I could benefit from having a defensive jutsu!" Naruto responded. "The jutsu itself may not be perfect being vulnerable to lightning and all, I really like the concept of it, and it could still really be useful."

"I see." Jiraiya agreed, being able to see the merits in it. "But, unfortunately, I don't know how to execute the jutsu itself. Sorry, kid."

"Oh, well. I guess I'll just have to look for one then. Perhaps the toads have one."

"Perhaps you could create one yourself. You already have the chakra, the fuinjutsu, and already a good idea of what you want." The sannin suggested. "Minato created a barrier jutsu that could not only absorb a tail beast bomb, but also relaunch it back to the bijuu itself."

The toad Sannin smiled, remembering his late student. He had been fortunate, and sometimes unfortunate, to come across some genius shinobi over the years. Hiruzen, Orochimaru, Nagato, Kakashi, Itachi and Hanzo, just to name a few, but Minato was a different breed of genius. A little boy armed with no dojutsu, kekkei genkai, powerful clan, or any other special abilities, other than the desire to learn, the will to surpass his predecessors, and a creative streak a mile wide.

Minato wasn't the kind of student to just absorb what he was being taught like a sponge, but he was the kind that absorbed the lessons, and reproduced bigger and better things.

He was one of the very few that even the likes of Orochimaru admitted to being inferior in terms of natural ability.

He remembered the time where the snake Sannin wanted to train Minato. He saw just how talented the boy was. But now, looking at how his one-time best friend had turned out, Jiraiya was really glad that he acted faster than him.

As a peace loving man, Minato still killed over a 1000 shinobi and brought an entire major village to its knees. The toad Sannin dreaded to think what kind of destruction Minato would have caused if he had ended up in Orochimaru's hands.

"Dad was pretty amazing, huh?"

"You have no idea kid; you have no idea-…"

Jiraiya found his ability to speak hampered when a fly flew straight into his mouth, causing the self-proclaimed super pervert a coughing fit as he's less than helpful student laughed at him.

 **Orochimaru's hideout**

Orochimaru couldn't fully express just how much he loved his life at the moment.

He supposed that everyone felt their lives to be precious to them, but with the snake Sannin, he's life was always above everyone else.

Ever since he was a child, Hiruzen had spoken much about his genius, often putting him in higher esteem over his other two students. When he finally opened his eyes to the shinobi world, he grew to realize just how vulnerable life was, how vulnerable his precious life was.

And so he sought to search for something that mere men had only dreamt about, something that had only been an illusion to most, and a myth to others.

Immortality.

A lot of people expected him to get things right at the first try due to his reputation, and if he was being honest with himself, he expected it as well. But when he failed, that's where the real fun began for the Sannin.

Contrary to popular beliefs, he also respected people who didn't give up. Hell, he was just like that himself. If Orochimaru felt the cause to be worthwhile, then it didn't matter how much time he spent, how many sacrifices he made, or how much of his effort he put into it, he wouldn't stop until he achieved it.

And now, finally he could taste it, he would reap the fruits of his labor. He showed a grin when he heard another pained groan coming out of Kakuzu as Kabuto continued operating on him.

It wouldn't be long now; he would have a suitable body for him as he awaited the Uchiha battle.

The snake Sannin had been hiding for long enough. He couldn't wait to remind the world just why he was such a feared shinobi, and most of all, he couldn't wait to dance with the Akatsuki.

His old companions must be surely looking for him at the moment, and if it wasn't for the fact that he destroyed the seal that Sasori put inside of Kabuto's head, they might have already found him. But very soon though, he would let them find him and on that day-

Orochimaru's thoughts were disturbed when a shinobi appeared next to him. He quickly recognized said shinobi to be Fuu Yamanaka, one of Danzo's most trusted pawns.

The man didn't say a word, but just handed over a scroll, and he was a blur as he quickly vanished. Orochimaru couldn't help but widen his grin when he opened the scroll, and found the Shinigami masks and classified information about all of Konoha's shinobi, including Anbu, that he asked Fuu for.

A few weeks ago, Danzo had contacted him again, having formed a new plan to take over Konoha without having to try to assassinate the Hokage. The Root leader had requested for help from the snake Sannin himself, and Orochimaru was more than happy to help, as long as Danzo provided him with everything he asked for, and the Shinigami masks from the Uzumaki temple was one of them.

With the masks, he could finally get his hands back, and everything else will be falling into place.

"The body is ready now, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto informed, fully satisfied with his work.

"Ah... Excellent." the snake Sannin said, his dark grin somehow getting even wider. And as if things couldn't get any creepier, Sasuke's **Kirin** roared outside the hideout.

 _Perfect... It seems Sasuke-kun's training is also complete, kukukuku…!_

 **Three days later**

For three days, Naruto and Jiraiya have been flying to Otogakure at top speed, only stopping at night for rest, food, and starting off early in the morning again.

For three stinking days Jiraiya has been forced to sit atop some clone high in the air and have his ass almost thrown back down due to the ridiculous speed. He fully understood that Naruto was really excited to finally meet another member of his clan, but this was just ridiculous.

He would be quite surprised if he wasn't jet lagged after this.

"Hey! You think you can slow down a bit?" he shouted putting his hands embarrassingly tight around the blonde's abdomen. "We're already in Oto, so there's no need to-

"I've found her!" Naruto shouted happily, interrupting his master.

"What? How's that even possible? You don't even know her chakra signature." Jiraiya said, honestly shocked.

"It's hard to explain… It's like her chakra is a satellite, constantly searching for other chakra signatures. She doesn't massive chakra reserves, but she is somehow able to spread her chakra evenly across the terrain." Naruto explained, finding himself impressed with such an ability.

"That's impressive." Jiraiya agreed with his thoughts." It could be why Orochimaru was interested in her."

"Maybe. And it seems like she has also managed to sense us as well. And even better, I'm not sensing Orochimaru's chakra anywhere near her."

"Then this will be easier than we thought." Jiraiya grinned, relieved.

"Yeah, well, it seems she's running away from us, and-…" the blonde stopped before screaming out in frustration and annoyance. "OH, FUCK ME!"

"What? Has something happened to her?" Jiraiya curiously asked, though he only needed one look from the blonde to understand. "...Akatsuki."

"Yeah, I can sense another tailed beast about west of here, which is where the two Akatsuki members are." Naruto responded with a frown. "Karin must have sensed them as well, because she's running the opposite direction at top speed."

What are they going to do now? If Karin gets far enough, it's very possible that they might lose her. But then again, this was another chance to take out another team of the notorious criminal organization.

"Naruto, you-"

"I'll try to send a clone after her." the younger sage interrupted Jiraiya once again. "I don't know how powerful she is, but if she's capable of defeating my clone, then we may end up losing her. But still we need to deal with Akatsuki now, before they do any real damage."

Jiraiya couldn't help but give a proud smile to the blonde, he was able to recognize the threat posed by Akatsuki and even chose to engage them at the risk of losing the only clan mate he will ever have.

Jiraiya put his hand on the blonde's shoulder as a sign of encouragement. "You did well. Now we just have to make sure to deal with these bastards quickly."

And with that, the two toad sages went to confront the Akatsuki duo.

And with that, the two toad sages went to confront the Akatsuki duo, though it never occurred to both that their would-be adversaries had also already noticed their presence until they also a single crow fly past them, its eyes red as the sharingan.

Just then, fire coated shiruken rushed at them from all directions with great speed. The shiruken would have surely killed them if Naruto hadn't used the enhanced speed of sage mode and Jiraiya his experience to their respective advantages.

The two quickly jumped off the falcon and dispelled the genjutsu. They were about to counter but soon realized that while they could sense their opponents, they still couldn't see them.

'A double layered genjutsu' Jiraiya realized

So dexterously done so as not to make it so apparent, the first layer being one masks the user's voice, location and causing a slight shift in the target's senses while the second one only there to supplement on hiding the user's location.

No doubt this was Itachi's work. He was the one only member of Akatsuki he was quite sure was capable was such.

The sannin really had to give it to the rogue shinobi, he had fought a lot of genjutsu type shinobi before but the skill required to not only put two S-ranked shinobi in the same genjutsu but also make it so that they noticed no changes in their environment was something only a true genius would be capable of.

Jiraiya quickly dispelled the genjutsu and was relieved to see Naruto had done so as well but the relief quickly turned to curses when both master and student found themselves falling into a torrent of water with 5 water sharks waiting for them.

Jiraiya never got the chance to shunshin himself out of trouble before the sharks leaped and attacked both Naruto and he, dragging them down to the water thereby reddening it with blood.

Just a few meters away, on a tree branch, sat a grinning Kisame and Itachi who were watching diligently.

Kisame tilted his head to the side, grin still in place as he along with his partner jumped down to on top of the water.

"That would be very easy eh Itachi-san?" the former hidden mist swordsman said not really looking at his partner.

Itachi gave a small nod nonetheless, "Yes, too easy for a Sannin" the Uchiha said calling out their opponents

The toad affiliated shinobi didn't disappoint as just then Itachi widened his eyes when they heard;

" **Sage art: Toad oil!"**

" **Wind style: Great wind breakthrough!"**

" **Fire style: Toad flame stream!"**

"Kisame!" Itachi shouted but the shark-man seemed to be one step ahead as he easily tossed his blade up into the air, and weaved through hand signs.

" **Water Style: Exploding Water Shockwave!** "

He threw up gallons upon gallons of water, and watched as the rising tidal wave crashed into the wave of flames launched towards them. The two Akatsuki members watched with wide eyes as the water jutsu did nothing to stop the biggest firestorm they have ever seen as it came hurtling towards them, the oil also doubled as a highly powered fuel stoking the ever growing fire, burning the oil quickly and hotly.

Any other opponent would have been terribly roasted by such a devastating attack but the Akatsuki members were too experienced and powerful to go down like that.

Both quickly shunshined away right before the flames could reach them.

As soon as Itachi reached the ground Jiraiya was on him with a hard right punch which he blocked. Kisame appeared right behind the Uchiha ready to slice Jiraiya in half but then got the surprise of his life when he felt a large tongue wrapping itself around his waist.

The swordsman was awkwardly pulled towards Naruto with his tongue, the blonde ready to smash a large **rasengan** into him but also got shocked when Samehada absorbed the jutsu instead. Kisame then used the blonde's shock to his advantage by delivering a brutal kick to the gut that sent him flying.

While all this was happening, Itachi used his free hand to quickly weave through handsigns and just as he was about to spit fire on Jiraiya, the sannin proved just why he was an S-ranked shinobi by yanking his hand free from Itachi's grip and spitting glob of mud on the ground, erecting a **mud** **wall** that blocked the **fireball jutsu**.

"Well well well, it seems the brat has grown up some" Kisame said putting his sword on his shoulder as he appeared behind his partner, he grinned when Naruto did the same with Jiraiya. "So, feel like hanging with the big boys huh?"

Naruto responded with a low growl quiet annoyed with himself for allowing his shock to the get the better of him. He was battling S-ranked shinobi so surprises were always on the card, if stupid mistakes like that were to happen again, it could end up being fetal.

"Hey, is it just me or is there something different about the brat? You know, other than the fact that he is taller and not wearing retarded colors?" Kisame asked only further annoying the blonde

It seemed Itachi had noticed as well if the raised brow was anything to go by.

"Yes, it seems Naruto-kun has grown exponentially over the years. The jutsu he's using has only ever been attained by the strongest of shinobi. It's what gave Jiraiya-sama so much fame after all." The Uchiha said honestly surprised that Jiraiya would teach such a high levelled technique to Naruto.

But then again, the blonde will be forced to battle against some of the most powerful shinobi in this world so maybe it wasn't so surprising.

Kisame simply gave Itachi a curious look obviously waiting for him to explain, not much concerned on their powerful opponents.

"Those eyes are proof of a dangerous technique Kisame, sage mode, those that master it get their body, senses, skills and movements heightened to greater degree than what they are normally capable of." The Uchiha explained quietly, "Even their jutsu are much more dangerous than they would ever be. Hashirama, the god of shinobi and first hokage, Minato, the yellow flash and fourth hokage and Jiraiya, a sannin; they all managed to attain this technique and all their enemies have found out one thing; that why they try with their might to use nature to their advantage, a sage… a true sage becomes nature itself."

"Impressive" Kisame said his grin only getting bigger, if what Itachi was saying true then he was really was really going to enjoy this battle

"Indeed, even more so that he mastered it at such an early age." Itachi agreed. "I don't really need to say this Kisame but do be careful, it seems Naruto-kun's new skills have some form of resistance to illusions making it significantly harder for me to put him in a genjutsu than I would have expected plus we mustn't forget Jiraiya as well"

Genjutsu allowed the user to take hold of their target's chakra and use it against them but with Naruto, it was different, due to the nature energy constantly going in and out of him, he's genjutsu wouldn't last for more than a second unless he used real high powered ones that bypassed the nature energy and went straight for the jinchurikki's real chakra like the one he used in the beginning and **Tsukuyomi** , but the Uchiha wasn't in the right physical condition to do that.

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes as he looked at the two 'criminals', this pair was definitely more dangerous than the last two. In the last battle they had the numerical advantage and Hidan wasn't really that impressive but this time, things were different.

It was a two on two battle of S-ranked shinobi, each just as dangerous as the next, the carnage about to take place was inevitable but which side was it going to favor?

Jiraiya had no idea but one thing was clear though, Naruto's inexperience with high level battle was going to play a major part in this.

Unlike the last battle, he wasn't going to allow himself to be separated from the blonde seeing just how powerful their new opponents are. Teamwork remained their best option but even that didn't guarantee anything because Itachi and Kisame have obviously been partners way longer than he and Naruto have been together.

If last battle was Naruto's test against high level opponents, then this one was going to be a baptism of fire.

 **SUNA**

It had been three years since Itachi had killed the Three Tails. The beast had no doubt reformed by this point, and Sasori and Zetsu had their spy networks working overtime to try and find it. A few days ago, they finally heard some reports that it was reforming in the hidden sound putting the Akatsuki mission back on track.

They were free to gather Tailed Beasts once more; with the threat of a painful death delivered by god himself should they delay the plan further. Deidera and Sasori decided to be the first ones to capture one of their targets, and so had struck out to the Hidden Sand, where they had been informed that the One Tail jinchurikki had actually been appointed Kazekage.

"Do you have all the clay you'll need?" asked Sasori, almost worriedly, but covered with a mask of calm.

"Yeah." Deidera responded. "I've even got some pre-sculpted art ready to go. When I let loose **C3** , they won't be able to find the Village Hidden in the Sand." Patting his bag for emphasis.

"Fine, as long as you're careful. I won't be able to help you up in the sky. I'll make good our escape, but that won't mean anything if you die." chided Sasori

"Alright, I get it!" exclaimed Deidera. "Fight the jinchurikki, don't kill him, get out."

"With the jinchurikki." added Sasori.

"That's implied!" said Deidera. "I have more than enough clay, and I won't need all of it. It's not like he can fly, yeah?"

"Just don't take long, you know just how much I hate waiting."

"It's good that you feel that way because here you won't have to wait to be buried, Sasori of the red sand" the two art lovers heard

They didn't have to wonder who the voice belonged to as the Kazekage, Fu and some jounin landed in front of them ready for battle.

"Well, it seems we really don't have to start looking for the Jinchurikki after all eh Sasori-dono?" the mad bomber said giving the Suna group a predatory grin

"Yes and look Deidera, we have two for the price of one" Sasori said

"What does Akatsuki want in my village?" Gaara asked though only out of courtesy more than anything, he knew what they wanted and he's village has been preparing itself ever since Jiraiya came to warn them.

He also had the toad sannin to thank for the improved seal he set up in the village, it spread to the entire Suna desert and was working better than he would have ever expected.

Just a few minutes ago, he had been informed that two powerful chakra signals had just entered the Suna desert and it wasn't Jiraiya and Naruto thereby leaving only one possible outcome…

Akatsuki

He used his **third eye** technique in order to confirm and once he did, Gaara had ordered a level 1 defensive barrier to be activated around the village and ordered both Baki and Kankuro to remain in the village in case the Akatsuki somehow bypassed the barrier and threatened the village's safety in the pursuit of the bijuu.

He would have wanted to deal with situation himself but Baki and Kankuro had insisted that he needed back up and Fu had volunteered.

Gaara didn't want to risk the girl's life like this but she convinced him that she is a capable kunoichi able to hold her own, so finally he relented, the young kage took 5 of the best jounin in Suna and Fu then started off to confront the S-ranked criminals.

"Hey" Deidera said taking out some clay from his pouch, "You know, the one tail is known as the weakest of the bijuu but with you being a kage and all… I really hope you don't disappoint Hn"

"You don't have to worry about that" Gaara responded as he's sand started rising.

He may hold the weakest bijuu but Gaara was anything but weak. The fact that he was the youngest kage proved that point.

Plus, the desert was his home ground, the place where he was at his strongest. Born of the desert, warrior of the desert, leader of the desert,

He was Gaara of the desert.

 **End Chapter**

 **Another chapter done, hope you enjoyed it.**

 **Next chapter might take longer since both battles are something that I really need to think about, I already have the outcomes of both in my mind but how to properly execute them may prove to be a bit challenging.**

 **Anyways, please let me know what you think of this chapter.**

 **And thank you to 'TheAmbitiousOne' for helping me put this together.**

 **Saravan out!**


	6. Chapter 6

The terrain was silent as a shadow, no rustling of leaves, chirping of birds or anything that would confirm the presence of life.

Nothing showed that the land was about to cry with chaos about to occur, as the four dangerous shinobi eyed each other, none making a single sound.

Just then, Naruto realized just how different these guys were to the last Akatsuki member he fought. Unlike Hidan, Kisame and Itachi were patient, cunning, skilled, experienced and well balanced.

He didn't sense a lot of chakra in Itachi but Kisame more than made up for it. Kisame may not be the smartest of shinobi but Itachi was a beast in that regard. Itachi was subtle and Kisame was overwhelming. Kisame had water and Itachi had fire. And while Kisame was a huge man who preferred brutal short range combat and a devastating water affinity. Itachi on the other hand was reserved, short, fast, smart and was fully capable of fighting at any range he desired.

These guys were the perfect partners.

They covered each other's weaknesses and supplemented each other's strengths as well. It was going to take something really special to defeat them.

Luckily for the two sages though, Naruto had his own secrets and trump cards.

He silently took out three shiruken from his pouch, coated it with wind chakra and launched them at the Akatsuki duo…

" **Shiruken shadow clone jutsu** "

" **Wind style; great wind breakthrough** "

The blonde said as the launched shiruken multiplied to twenty as the wind jutsu doubled the speed.

The two criminals quickly jumped to opposite directions in order to avoid the shiruken, Naruto used their separation to his advantage as he took out two more wind coated shiruken and once again launched them.

Kisame was ready to parry the shiruken away from him but as soon it reached close enough, it turned to a puff of smoke, showing that it was in fact a Naruto clone instead. It threw a punch aimed at the swordsman's face, yet Kisame blocked it with one hand and used his Samehada to pierce the clone in the gut.

He was surprised when instead of puffing out of existence, the clone merely grinned and held on to the sword. Kisame tried to pull the sword out, however found it to be stuck inside the clone; one look at the penetrated stomach later confirmed that the clone was somehow made of oil, very sticky oil.

'A good counter' Kisame thought, Samehada is notorious for absorbing chakra and sensing strong opponents, but against natural things it's just like any other sword.

The Akatsuki shinobi was then forced to abandon the sword as the clone went out with an explosion sparking an oil fueled fire.

While this was happening, Itachi didn't let the shiruken anywhere near him as he responded and turned into a flock of crows, suddenly appearing behind Jiraiya.

"You have taught him well, but will it be enough?" the Uchiha said,

A kunai in his hand, Itachi slashed at the back of the sannin's neck, only for his hair to suddenly elongate and harden rendering the kunai ineffective.

Jiraiya quickly countered with a low sweeping kick to knock Itachi off his feet, yet the Uchiha easily jumped over it but couldn't do anything about the rasengan brutally delivered to his gut.

The kick was a feint…

Jiraiya looked at the bleeding Uchiha, not believing for one second that he could be defeated that easily, fearing that he was in a genjutsu until Itachi pointed to the spot he was previously standing on.

Jiraiya turned his head and was forced to erect a **mud wall** when the real Itachi spat another **fireball jutsu** at him.

Naruto then appeared in front of the Uchiha ready to slam a brutal jab to the face, the Uchiha easily dodged but was still sent flying when an invisible force hit him square in the face.

The blonde didn't get the chance to press the advantage as Kisame appeared in front of him having finally recovered his sword. The bluish man sent a punch to his gut that would have surely connected, if not for the sannin defending him with a high kick that Kisame was forced to block with his Samehada.

Before either of the two toad affiliated shinobi were able to take advantage of their temporary numerical advantage, Itachi delivered a brutal kick to the sannin that sent him flying and followed him to press the attack, leaving the chakra tanks by themselves.

Kisame swung Samehada at Naruto, however the blonde was fast enough to take out another kunai, coat it with wind chakra and meet Kisame's Samehada slash for his neck. The two, with their blades locked, glared at each other, Naruto sneering and Kisame with a smirk on his face. He blocked Kisame's first swipe, and the next, and countered with a slower kick that Kisame sidestepped but was still sent back by an invisible force.

Kisame regained himself and continued with his attack as Samehada's scales absorbed the chakra on the blonde's kunai with tiny sounds of steel scraping on steel. Kisame pushed Naruto back and began hacking continuously at him with Samehada.

Kisame's hacks increased in speed, each swipe faster than the last, each one Naruto blocked and parried and dodged. Then after one very long swipe, Kisame overextended himself and Naruto once again got into his defense, delivering a kick across his chest that the man ducked over but was once again sent flying.

Kisame came back swinging Samehada sideways in order to slice the jinchurikki but Naruto was able to quickly block with a kunai having continuously coated it with wind chakra despite the fact that Samehada was absorbing it.

As the weapons clash, a battle of strength and power begun, Kisame trying to overwhelm Naruto with his strength and Naruto pushing back trying to avoid being sliced open by the huge sword.

"Perhaps you've grown a little, so why don't we up the ante, eh?" The swordsman said as he jumped back, weaved through hand seals and unleashed a solitary water shark headed for him.

Naruto easily destroyed the shark with his kunai, before realizing that it was just a ploy when massive torrents of water came rushing towards him soon after.

" **Earth style; Mobile Core**." The blonde said as the ground he stood on suddenly rose high enough above the great flood that Kisame had just released.

'Crazy fast hand signs these guys have' the jinchurikki thought as he tried to think of a strategy to defeat this battle crazed man.

In less than a minute he had not only sent a shark after him but was also fast enough to create a jutsu that suited his preferred environment.

He wanted to use **frog kata** but he also needed to find a way to use ninjutsu on him without his precious sword absorbing the chakra.

This was a fight that Naruto would need to use the full measure of his abilities to win, that he could use to test how far he had really come, with the dark cloud looming overhead that countless other things would fall apart if he found himself unable to pull through.

Kisame continued grinning as he stood at the surface of the water, "Well come on then, let's play." He said as he motioned for the blonde to get in the water as well.

"No"

"Come on, I won't kill ya"

"Nope"

"I promise"

"Kiss my ass shark-face, you think I don't know what's waiting for me down there?"

At that moment sharks and water clones rose out of the water and come rushing for him. Fortunately, Naruto was a master of the 'numbers' game, easily countering with the **multi-shadow clone jutsu**.

Smoke and water flew through the air as clones clashed and dispelled each other in a stalemate.

When he was finally sure that there were no more surprises waiting for him in the water, the jinchurikki jumped back down to the water, but as soon as his feet touched the surface, the blonde appeared in front of Kisame with a **rasengan** in hand aiming straight for the gut.

Kisame gleefully brought Samehada down to once again absorb the jutsu grinning in the process, "So you really want to donate some chakra eh? Well then by all means, give it to me."

Just then, another Naruto appeared in front of Kisame with a **big ball** **rasengan** in hand and this time the former hidden mist swordsman was slammed so hard that he was actually sent flying by the force of the jutsu.

"Well then take it!"

 **Jiraiya and Itachi**

This was exactly what he was trying to avoid, one on one battles, he didn't want to be too far from Naruto in this kind of battle and it really irked him that they were separated so easily.

He needed to think of something that would allow him to neutralize Itachi and regroup with his student before anything damaging could happen. Of course that was easier said than done, Itachi was no walkover.

He gave as good as he got and then some, despite his small stature and disarming looks, the Uchiha was a force to reckon with.

Devastating genjutsu skills, perfect mastery of the sharingan, incredible taijutsu and a ninjutsu arsenal perfectly supplementing his style.

Itachi was the kind of opponent that didn't waste anything, every move was perfectly executed, nothing was ever without purpose.

All in all, Jiraiya finally understood just why there was so much hype surrounding the former anbu.

Itachi's foot came up to kick Jiraiya in the face but the sannin was able to block it and countered with a punch to the face but once again, Itachi bust into a flock of crows.

The Uchiha was in the middle of weaving through hands signs as Jiraiya quickly created another mud wall to block Itachi's jutsu.

 _Something is wrong here_ …

Throughout the battle, Itachi had shown an ability to weave through hand signs faster than the eye could follow, then all of the sudden Jiraiya was capable of erecting a mud wall before Itachi could execute his jutsu.

 _Genjutsu_.

Jiraiya quickly dispelled the jutsu, widening his eyes when he saw Itachi appear in front of him, who then sent him flying with a brutal kick.

A few quick hand signs later, Itachi pressed the attack with the **fire style; phoenix** **flower jutsu**. The former anbu spit countless small fireballs at the sannin, which he tried with all his might to evade but one eventually caught him on the arm.

Jiraiya didn't get the chance to put out the fire before Itachi appeared before him and delivered another kick.

A puff of smoke was the result, signaling that it was only a clone, though Itachi didn't seem surprised at that, if anything he seemed to be expecting it.

The Uchiha was quick to hop over a hand that reached up from the earth to pull him under, he landed lightly and burst forward as he felt Jiraiya pull himself from the ground.

Itachi never got the chance to attack as once again, Jiraiya's hair elongated, needle like pieces of it shooting towards Itachi with the aim to impale.

" **Needle Jizo** "

As soon as one of them touched him, Itachi simply broke apart into a flock of crows reappearing fifteen meters away.

The two s-ranked shinobi faced each other down, no one making a move or a single sound but knowingly to both, a battle of strategy had begun.

"Perhaps it's now time to take things seriously Jiraiya-sama."

"Hmm."

Before either of them could make a move, an ocean of water rushed towards them at full speed, threatening to swallow them if they didn't do anything to avoid it. Though two quick shunshin later and the two shinobi found themselves on the surface of the raging water.

"Kisame must have be getting excited, it would be in your best interest to end this quickly" the Uchiha bluntly said to which Jiraiya inwardly cursed.

"Though I do wonder, will you be able to defeat me Jiraiya-sama?"

 **Suna**

As it turned out, the one-tailed jinchurikki could fly. Or at least his sand could, which amounted to the same thing. The mad bomber couldn't help but grin as he thought of the last battle he had in the sky; after being declared a rogue ninja by Iwa, the tsuchikage had taken it upon himself to hunt down the art lover.

Though he may have been past his prime, Ohnoki was no pushover. The longest reigning kage took to the sky and personally confronted Deidera, and on that day, Deidera realized just how beautiful his art could be.

He held his own against the famed particle style, his art giving as good as it got, the battle was so fast and furious that seasoned jounin were not able to follow it. He would have loved to defeat the old kage and leave Iwagakure in debris and smithereens, but he was forced to flee when he ran out of clay.

An exciting day for him that ended in disappointment but then he at least learnt some things from it.

His clay was not invisible and he always has to prepare himself for anything.

He had never thought that he would ever find another shinobi that could fly, but his expecting the unexpected allowed him to not be too surprised when it turned out that not only could the Kazekage fly but the 7 tailed jinchurikki could as well.

Deidera was taken from his mental musings by the large stream of sand that shot towards him from the mass of grains in front of the Kazekage. As he absent-mindedly sent his hawk into a steep dive to avoid it, he continued thinking about the kid he was supposed to capture, and later kill. He was quite skilled, but still he (Deidera) was out of his league anyway.

While Gaara's sand provided most of his arsenal just like his clay, the young kage didn't have the same kind of diversity. Gaara depended on his sand to capture opponents before hurting them, his art on the other hand didn't have that problem.

Gaara's sand was slow but his clay was fast and destructive.

On any other opponent, Deidera would have written them off as unfulfilled potential but considering this boy was still a kage and the battle had only begun, he guessed he needed to keep a watchful eye.

He looked up to see a massive face looking back at him, mouth wide as his bird hurtled towards it. he pulled up, and the mouth reached up to snap at him. he pulled up, and quickly spun to the side to miss the stream of sand from before. The art lover had heard what the Kazekage could do with his sand, and he knew if he was caught in it, he was done for.

He tossed his right hand out, then the two birds inside it came to life and sprinted for the Kazekage from opposite directions. The sand beneath him shot up from both sides and blocked the birds, which exploded anyway.

The sand retreated back to ominously float around its red haired master, and Deidera pulled up across from him. He had gathered that the young kage wasn't one to talk, so he was slightly surprised when he deigned to do so. "I have been warned of Akatsuki and their intentions towards me. But know that as Kazekage, I cannot lose."

"Cool, yeah. But you're gonna have to try harder if you really want to kill me, Hn!" shouted Deidera, emphasizing the point with a small, four-winged bird that went flying from his left hand.

He had perhaps hoped that the bird would prove faster than the sand and defeat the Kazekage then and there, but he wasn't overly annoyed when the sand came up to block the bird and succeeded. After all, the smoke from the failed explosion concealed the first bird's twin that had emerged from her right hand moments later. The Kazekage would lower his sand to try and keep an eye on her, and the second bird would swoop in and detonate. Sasori had been worrying too much when he had insisted he bring a third bag of clay.

The second bird swooped around the edge of the sand shield to escape any remnants, and Deidera was shocked to see a large mass of sand move to the left to block her second bird as well. He growled under his breath at the sight, which came with the knowledge that this might not be as easy as he had first thought. Responding to the Kazekage's emotionless gaze, the sand began to chase Deidera across the sky once again.

Meanwhile

Fu was a proud kunoichi, one who worked hard for everything she has gained in life. Unlike other girls, she didn't grow up to be a 'fan girl' that was only interested in boys and relationships.

Even before Chomei was sealed inside of her, she had the desire to be the strongest kunoichi Taki has ever known. When she was made a jinchurikki, that desire only grew, she wanted to be strong enough to protect her comrades and her friends (assuming she ever got any). The village elders convinced her that she was tasked with the honor of being 'Taki's guardian', even though no one else saw it that way in the village, her strength would be key to Taki's survival.

But every time she saw these Akatsuki agents fight, Fu was more and more convinced that she couldn't possibly hope to defeat them on her own. Even though Hidan was still easily defeated by Naruto, she still didn't have any jutsu that worked like the shadow clone leaving her with nothing to use to draw out the jashinist's true power.

And now, here she was battling 'Sasori of the red sand' along with five other jounin and despite the numerical advantage, they found themselves still on the losing end of things.

Sasori, or Hiruko as the man liked to call it, was the most dangerous man-made weapon that Fu has ever come across, from head to tail everything about it screamed terror.

Hiruko's Tail; which comes out from the back of Hiruko was very flexible and could withstand much powerful attacks before breaking. The tail is easily maneuverable and can be used as a defense against Non-Elemental Attacks. It can extend about twenty meters from the puppet.

At the tip of its stinger is a dose of poison; the poison created by Sasori himself.

Lethal and potent, as one unlucky jounin found when he got closer to the puppet in his bid to slice it in half, the tail lunged itself at him and scratched him on the forearm.

"One down." Hiruko said as its tail somehow reattached itself to his back. "Unfortunately for you, every part of my puppets is coated with a poison of my design, one touch is all it takes for you to be affected. Now it's only a matter of time before it affects your entire system, three days to be exact. If I were you, I'll be rushing back to the village to get an antidote, that is… if there is one."

The shinobi in question merely gave him a hateful sneer, "if I'm going to die then fine, then I'll make sure my last act on earth is rid this world of scum like you"

"laughable." Hiruko responded as its mouth opened releasing countless senbon after senbon.

Fu took to the sky trying by all and any means to dodge, but the senbon were just too much and some could have definitely impaled her were it not for one of the jounin, a middle-aged bald man, who took out a war fan like Temari's and released a wind jutsu that pushed the senbon away.

"Impressive" Hiruko said his face giving nothing away. "Though I wonder, how long can you hold out?"

The puppet's mouth still opened, it started releasing more and more senbon, shooting at impossible speeds causing the fan-using shinobi more pressure as he tried by all means to defend while the others tried to do the same with their wind jutsu.

Before anything else could be done, the poisoned man appeared behind Sasori and quickly grabbed hold its tail, refusing to let go even as it separated itself and made him a human pincushion.

With the head busy shooting senbon and the tail caught, Fu took the advantage and immediately flew to where she assumed the heart of Hiruko to be located intent on striking a killer blow.

Though once again, she was reminded why he was an S-ranked shinobi when Hiruko's left arm detached itself and flew at her turning into a rocket and started shooting out bars. The bars then open up and sent on more Senbon at the dark skinned jinchurikki.

The little needle like weapons would have surely skewed her if not for the poisoned shinobi to suddenly shunshin in front of her with Hiruko's tail still lodged in him.

The man ended up taking the fall for her as the senbon impaled him all over his body. He grunted as he fell to the ground, blood leaking all over.

"W-Why would you do that?" Fu asked stepping closer to the man, "I'm not even from your village"

"I-I-I know, but w-we're still a… t-team plus we d-don't have a c-chance of beating him without you, i-isn't that what com… comradery is about?" the man responded, from the moment he was poisoned, he decided to make himself the decoy, the one to take Sasori's attacks as it wasn't going to make any difference since he was bound to die anyway.

"B-But you didn't have to sacrifice yourself like that for me, I-

Despite knowing his rather gruesome fate, the man managed to give Fu a small smile. "I k-know, I did it b-because I wanted to" he said in his labored breath.

"What a fool" Hiruko stated as it stopped firing senbon looking at Fu directly, "he deludes himself into thinking he's made some heroic move but what he doesn't understands is that your death is inevitable"

"Shut Up!" Fu growled as her body was wrapped by Chomei's cloak, she flew faster than ever at the puppet yet he once again opened his mouth and started shooting out more senbon. This time, instead of dodging the poisonous weapons, the senbon failed to penetrate her bijuu's cloak giving her an opportunity to reach Hiruko and landing a powerful hit on its chest.

" **Bug** **bite** "

She said as she hit Hiruko with what appeared to be a glancing a glancing blow but was actually a piercing bite that completely obliterated the puppet.

She stood for a few more seconds to see if it would move, when it didn't she and the rest of Suna jounin breathed a sigh of relief. She looked back at the man who had taken a hit for her and smiled when he gave her a 'thumbs up'.

"Well that was quite interesting"

All eyes widened when, a young redhead boy appeared before them wearing an Akatsuki cloak.

"I never expected you to defeat Hiruko... then again, you are a jinchurikki so that should not be so surprising"

Fu couldn't believe it; all this time they have been getting their asses kicked and just when they thought they had finally won; it turns out that it wasn't even the real one.

She tried to speak but her voice failed her so she settled for gaping astonishingly along with the others.

"Why so quiet?" did you really think that you have defeated me so easily hmm?" Sasori asked with a small smile, when he didn't receive an answer he took out a scroll summoned another puppet.

One that somehow managed to double the jonin's fear and terror, one of them could be seen shaking, his eyes wide as saucers as he stared upon someone he had only read in history books, someone who was known all over the land of wind as the strongest Kazekage in history. A shinobi whose power was once said could rival the likes of Ohnoki the fence sitter, Hanzo the salamander and Hiruzen the professor.

The third Kazekage now turned into a puppet.

"Y-You monster" one of them said taking a step back

"Ah, so now you finally get it huh? You have no hope of ever winning this battle. So then, shall we let the fun begin."

 **Otogakure**

Despite the hole that was slowly healing on his chest, Kisame was still giving Naruto a savage grin as he took off his Akatsuki cloak.

First Hidan, now Kisame? seriously, did everyone in Akatsuki possess some insane jinchurikki level healing abilities?

"Now that was more like it, it seems by too close to you is rather dangerous so let's see how you handle this…" the swordsman took off after him, his sword in one hand as his other weaved through hand signs, "Now let's play kid"

" **Ninja art; Hidden mist jutsu** "

Naruto senses were immediately on high alert as soon as he heard Kisame call out the name of the jutsu. He had already seen the effects of the jutsu from Zabuza and knew just how dangerous the supplementary jutsu could be if used right.

Once again, Naruto mentally thanked Fukasaku for teaching him sage mode, if it wasn't for the advanced sensory abilities, he would have been in a rather adverse position right now.

" **Water style; Water pistol jutsu** "

A powerful shot of water flew at him with blinding speed and an unbelievable force that would have surely left a hole in his head. The young sage used his enhanced speed, reaction and wind chakra to avoid the jutsu at point blank range.

Kisame appeared behind ready to strike, however he was quick enough to duck under the swordsman's swing. Before he pressed his attack Naruto took him out with a brutal roundhouse turning him into a puddle of water.

'Clone.'

He wasn't given any breathing space as another Kisame appeared above, coming on him with a downward strike which the jinchurikki dodged.

Before Naruto could attack this one, a second Kisame appeared in front of him, he threw a punch at him but it caught it and created a water sword with his other hand aiming for his gut.

And would have been impaled if it wasn't for his (Naruto) unorthodox thinking sometimes; Just as Kisame was about to connect, the jinchurikki pushed his head forward and gave him a brutal head-butt turning him into water as the other Kisame reached him.

He didn't give this one any chance to attack as he quickly outstretched two fingers towards him in the shape of a gun.

" **Wind bullet** "

He said as he pierced the man in the chest, dispelling him as well.

Naruto frowned as the mist thickened, he could sense that Kisame hadn't moved from where he was standing, obviously the man was trying to mock him as he heard a chuckle.

"You know, if you want a 'who can make more clones game' I'm all for it but I thought you wanted to take this seriously" Naruto said as he felt Kisame gathering up chakra for his next jutsu, he sped through hand signs of his own ready to defend and counter.

" **Water style; water shark bomb jutsu** "

Kisame called out as the water near him took the form of a large shark, Kisame jumped inside of it and thrust his hand towards Naruto sending it towards him at really high speeds.

Before Kisame could make any impact, Naruto called out his jutsu;

" **Summoning jutsu"**

A puff of smoke later, Gamakichi appeared on his feet and quickly jumped so as to avoid the battle crazed shinobi and his water shark.

"Yo Bro, what's up?"

"I need fire now"

"Sure thing"

As both sage and summon were pulled back down by the force of gravity, they sped through hand signs ready to roast the shark man.

" **Sage art; Toad oil"**

 **"Sage art; Wind style; devastating windstorm"**

 **"Sage art; Fire style; flame bullet** "

The resulting jutsu was a big firestorm that came down on Kisame fast with the intent to roast.

" **Water style; wall of water** "

A large stream of water was created, forming a protective wall preventing the fire to reach Kisame.

The jutsu clashed but due to the fire's added fuel, it overpowered the water and went straight for the Akatsuki agent.

Kisame in turn used the shark he was in to swim fast in order to avoid the fire and soon realized that was what Naruto had planned as he appeared in front of him and gave him a brutal uppercut sending him flying to the air.

The blonde followed that up by creating a **rasenshiruken** and followed Kisame in the air ready to finish him but the bluish man somehow recovered quickly and summoned another big shark this one even bigger than the last.

" **Water style: super shark bomb** "

Kisame thrust his hands forward towards Naruto, and the shark obeyed, speeding towards faster than he would have anticipated but since he already a jutsu in hand, Naruto decided to hurl the **rasenshiruken** at the shark instead.

As the jutsu clashed, it looked like the shark was trying to absorb the chakra from the highly powered wind jutsu but weather it was because of the sage chakra infused with it or the rasenshiruken was just that powerful, the result was the shark being completely destroyed but still gave enough time for Kisame to shunshin himself out of trouble.

"You know despite what Itachi-san said about you, I do admit to having still underestimated you kid. But no more" Kisame said truthfully as he threw Samehada up in the sky and created another jutsu.

" **Water style; Great exploding water colliding wave** "

The swordsman spit out a great volume of water, covering the entire area with crushing unavoidable waves thereby swallowing up both Gamakichi and Naruto. The water then formed into a giant dome trapping all three inside of it.

"Uh, Naruto I have a bad feeling about this" the toad said as it swam closer to the young sage.

"Me too"

'I should have summoned Gamabunta instead' the blonde thought begrudgingly, the chief toad would have been better suited to deal with this kind of thing.

"You're faster than me and a little bit unpredictable as well, I admit it. But there is one thing you should know about me…" the criminal said as it merged with its sword turning into what could only be described as some crossover between a merman and a shark.

"The stronger my opponent is, the stronger I will be as well. Due to my overwhelming chakra reserves, perfect water control and everlasting stamina, I have been given the name 'the tailless tailed beast'. You could even say that I am the 'zero tails' and… you've just entered my domain kid."

 **Meanwhile**

The two clashed, Jiraiya bringing a kunai coated with earth against Itachi's well-placed fire-coated kunai that kept his arm braced. The way Itachi used his second arm to support his other at the wrist, gave him enough space to quickly rattle off hand-seals before Jiraiya could overpower his one limb,

" **Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu**!"

Jiraiya was able to leap away, keeping himself just out of the way of the expanding blaze. One of his arms burned, but it was preferable to his entire body being immolated. The sannin quickly prepared a jutsu of his own as he flew back through the air, " **Earth style; earth dragon jutsu**!"

The two contrasting jutsu cancelled each other out, but Jiraiya wasn't done though as he called out his second jutsu, " **Earth dragon bullet jutsu**!"

He then touched the ground immediately creating a mud source. A dragon like head emerged from the mud and started shooting out mud balls at Itachi.

The Uchiha dodged but then Jiraiya poured more chakra into his jutsu and combined it with a fire jutsu making the mud balls fast and searing hot.

Itachi managed to dodge a few of them but they were too fast and too many so eventually one managed to hit him on the chest.

But once again the renegade broke apart into a flock of crows.

'Man, I'm really starting to hate birds' Jiraiya thought irritated as he disrupted his chakra once again breaking the sensory genjutsu cast on him by Itachi. Due to him avoiding staring Itachi in the eyes, the Uchiha was restricted to executing only simple, subtle genjutsu.

Jiraiya took off running toward the Uchiha and Itachi shifted his left foot back to engage him in a taijutsu duel. The two began exchanging blows and parries and blocks and little feints and dodges. The uchiha suddenly drew out some shiruken and threw them straight at the older man who skillfully dodged and ducked but Itachi took advantage and caught Jiraiya with a flying knee to the sternum that sent him flying. Jiraiya quickly righted himself in midair in time to block Itachi's follow up kick with his forearm. The sannin turned the block into a grab rotating backward to draw the rogue shinobi towards him. A fist to the gut sent Itachi plunging back into the water below with the wind knocked out of him.

Just as he regained his equilibrium, Jiraiya angled up a high kick for Itachi's face that the Uchiha caught with one arm and Jiraiya could feel his crushing strength as Itachi held him in place. Itachi raised his other hand and made one hand seal and his chest puffed up.

Jiraiya's eyes widened before a giant wave of flames devoured him at close range though unsurprisingly the sage puffed into smoke.

Jiraiya was proving to Itachi just why the man was feared, despite the fact that he was past his prime, Jiraiya still had enough power to topple some of the best shinobi to this day. He may be faster, more technically gifted and had a dojutsu but still the sannin matched him blow for blow.

Left? Right? Underground? Itachi wondered, his senses on high alert but once again Jiraiya surprised him when he appeared.

"Behind you!" Jiraiya said, holding a swirling ball of chakra. Itachi's eyes widened. " **Rasengan**!" Jiraiya dug the **Rasengan** into Itachi's back. His success lasted only a second. In a smoke cloud, Itachi was gone, replaced by a log that exploded into a shower of splinters as the **Rasengan** tore into it.

Itachi reappeared a few meters away as Jiraiya began running through a couple of hand seals. Itachi did the same, matching Jiraiya sign for sign. The two men locked their hands on the last hand seal and simultaneously shouted: " **Fire** **style; great** **fireball** **jutsu**!" Both inhaled deeply, and their chests puffed-up.

The two expelled two massive streams of flames that clashed with a deafening roar. The clearing lit up from the light of the flames as the two techniques battled against each other. Itachi's fireball grew larger as he funneled more chakra into it.

He played straight into Jiraiya's plan.

Another Jiraiya exploded from underneath the ground and ran through a set of handseals.

" **Ninja art; needle Jizo** " His hair stiffened-up, every strand hardening into steel. He whipped his hair back and forth and shot off a hail of needles from his hair like a porcupine would its quills. The hair needles whirled through the flames as the original Jiraiya let his fireball dissipated.

Itachi saw the hail. He saw it coming as slow as a snail, throwing reflections of moonlight. Every single sharp, white deadly strand he caught with clear detail. He saw them all. He saw them at the last moment. He had only a split second to move….

There was a shower of thumps as Jiraiya's jutsu connected, the sound coming like a thousand pitter-patters. The earth all around Itachi cracked from the hair-needle hail, kicking up dust that could only be seen with the moon's light.

Itachi reappeared a few feet away to the right from where he originally stood, his cloak swaying from the sudden stop in motion. He looked relatively fine, except two of Jiraiya's hair needles had found their way into his arm and shoulder respectively. Itachi removed them without so much as a flinch, and thin trails of blood swam out from the holes.

Itachi gave a light cough that went unnoticed by his opponent. "I must say, you live up to your title as 'sannin'." Itachi stated as he let both needles drop to the ground with soft steel thumps.

They were both forced to temporarily halt their gruesome battle when they saw a large dome of water being formed where Kisame and Naruto were.

Jiraiya frowned not recognizing the jutsu but got more worried as he thought of how Naruto would fare against such a thing. And the trepidation for his student only increased when Itachi spoke,

"That is one of Kisame's most dangerous jutsu, if Naruto-kun is unfortunate enough to find himself inside it then he's as good as defeated." Itachi stated in a matter-of-fact manner.

That's it, well, he really had to use it now

"We'll see…" Jiraiya put his hands together and began making a sequence of all too familiar set of hand-signs.

" **Summoning jutsu**!"

The twin plumes of smoke that came were too small for any of the big toads. Instead when the smoke cleared, two small toads stood on both of Jiraiya's shoulders – one on the left and the other on the right. The toad on the right was green-skinned, with thick white eyebrows, a white goatee, a stubble of white hair on its head resembling a Mohawk and wore a high-collared brown cape. The one on the left, was a lighter shade of green with a purple head that looked like she was wearing a hair-net with hair rollers underneath. There were purple markings around the toad's mouth and it was wearing a high-collared cape as well.

Itachi's eyebrow crinkled up with interest.

"Jiraiya-boy? What is the meaning of this?" came a throaty female voice from the toad on Jiraiya's left shoulder, sounding none too pleased. "You better have a good reason for this. I was making dinner." The toad waved a wooden spoon in Jiraiya's face.

"Shut your yapping will ya Shima! Look around." A wizened male voice came from the other toad perched on Jiraiya's right shoulder. "You did well calling us, Jiraiya-boy. I see a formidable opponent." Jiraiya nodded his appreciation to the male sage toad.

"Forgive me, Ma, Pa. I had no choice." Jiraiya said with determination in his eyes, " Naruto might be in trouble, we need to end this quick."

"I see" Fukasaku said as he narrowed his eyes at the uchiha. "Alright then Jiraiya-boy. You know how it goes."

"Let's do it!" the two toads on Jiraiya's shoulders closed their eyes and clasped both hands together. This was one of the jutsu Jiraiya least used, because of the fact it was incomplete and secondly, downgraded his looks, he really envied both Naruto and Minato in that regard.

His Sage Mode.

The two toads on his shoulders would gather natural energy and then proceed to fuse themselves to Jiraiya, thus allowing him to access the Senjutsu chakra they had gathered. He kept his eyes on Itachi, hoping that he could keep him at bay long enough until Shima and Fukasaku had both gathered enough Senjutsu chakra for him to quickly end this battle.

Itachi decided he wouldn't wait for Jiraiya and his toads to finish what he was presuming to be the sannin's trump card. Jiraiya tensed up as the Uchiha began weaving through a flurry of handsigns and leaned back.

" **Fire style; phoenix flower jutsu**!"

Jiraiya knew if the flower flames were to hit him, they would cause harm to Fukasaku and Shima as well, thus rendering all their efforts useless.

The small fireballs came at him. And Jiraiya sped through handsigns of his own.

" **Sealing art; chakra barrier** "

Jiraiya muttered as a blue barrier erected him, the flames hit but the barrier stood firm protecting Jiraiya.

" **Fire style; fire ball jutsu**!" the Uchiha called forming another fireball that hit the barrier with all its might but was still unable to neutralize it.

"Hang on for just a bit longer Jiraiya-boy, we're almost done" Fukasaku encouraged as the two small toads continued gathering enough nature energy.

Seeing his second jutsu fail to penetrate the barrier, frowned thinking of what he would be forced to do if Jiraiya managed to enter sage mode. He had been trying by all means to avoid using his mangyeko but it seemed that he would be forced to.

"I see. The acclaim on fuinjutsu was well deserved after all" the uchiha commented as Jiraiya smirked

"But then again, every jutsu has a weakness" as he closed one eye, blood profusely leaked out of it and when he opened it, a black plume of black fire engulfed the entire barrier as it started to slowly but surely started melting.

" **Amateratsu** "

'Black flames! But he didn't even-! All he did was just look!'

Itachi had control of black fire that he could use just by staring at something? If ever there was a jutsu that had unfair written all over it…

He remembered the black fire from three years ago when the Uchiha had used it to escape from him and he had sealed the fire to study them as he had never seen a jutsu like that before.

The sannin had gone through all past records, even the sealed Uchiha records but didn't find anything that said anything about them.

All Jiraiya knew was that it could burn anything it touched and now apparently could be executed with just a look.

Itachi let out a grunt, heard clearly by Jiraiya, blinking his right eye painfully as they the Uchiha's knee went to the ground.

'I see, it seems the jutsu has quite some adverse effects to those that use it' Jiraiya could sense that it took a great amount of chakra to use the jutsu and by the pained look on Itachi's normally stoic face, he gathered that it hurt the body as well

'Well atleast it has some consequences' the sannin thought vindictively but his cruel look was turned to one of panic when Itachi stood up and re-centered his vision's focal point at him.

Only a quick desperate shunshin saved him as the spot he was standing on was covered by more black flames, this time completely melting the barrier and started burning the previous black flames as well.

"Uh guys, now would be a good time to enter sage mode" Jiraiya said as he hurtled through the air and used another shunshin to land on a tree, another body flicker and he was back on the ground.

This went on for about a minute as he felt this was the best way to avoid being caught by such a dangerous technique, one that should be banned in Jiraiya's own humble opinion.

When he once again shunshined to the air, Itachi took out some shiruken, weaved through handsigns and called a jutsu.

" **Fire style; phoenix flower jutsu** "

The uchiha fired the flames, but this time the shiruken were inside the flames.

" **Shiruken shadow clone jutsu** " Itachi said as the shiruken doubled along with the flames.

Once again, Jiraiya used a shunshin to transport himself to the ground but immediately regretted that decision as he just realized that he had fallen right in Itachi's hands when he heard.

" **Amateratsu** "

He tried to speedily maneuver himself to move out of the way but the black flames caught his left hand burning intensely.

"Gaaahh!" the sannin screamed in pain, feeling his burning flesh, the flames were even hotter than he ever expected. and this was only his left arm burning, he dreaded to think what would happen if the black flames had hit his entire body.

In a moment of desperation, the sannin quickly created a seal less clone who took out a scroll and sped through handsigns

" **Sealing art; chakra barrier**!"

He said as another barrier erected around Jiraiya, the clone wasn't done though as it opened the scroll and sped through more handsigns,

" **Sealing art; Fire consuming seal** "

The blames were then consumed by the seal, leaving the hand charred, bleeding and so black that it looked rotten over roasted flesh. Even though the fire was sealed away, Jiraiya could still feel his skin burning and itching, a closer look at it and one could easily see the humerus bone inside the black flesh.

His precious hand was pretty much useless now, even just trying to move it a fraction of an inch hurt, if he didn't get any medic attention soon he might be forced to cut it off in order to avoid it contaminating the rest of his body.

He gritted his teeth as he glared at Itachi who was once again on his knees, one hand on his bleeding eye as he tried to nurse the excruciating pain he felt. Though a vindictive smirk appeared on the sannin's face when Shima told him,

"Alright Jiraiya-boy, we're ready"

 **SUNA**

Deidera was a frustrating opponent for Gaara, the man was really quick on his bird but that wasn't the main problem, he had battled against really fast opponents like Rock Lee and Sasuke so it wasn't the main issue.

The thing with Deidera though was that the 'mad-bomber' was not only quick but versatile as well. When he had fought Lee, all the genin used was taijutsu and it was the same with Sasuke until he used the chidori to break through his defense.

Those two battles taught him one thing; his sand was too slow for his own good, his offence mostly depended on him grabbing his opponent before effectively ending them but if he's too slow to catch his opponent then it reduces his chances of winning tremendously.

So over the past three years, the Suna kage had been training hard to improve on his weaknesses and he's proud of what he has accomplished until now.

Using less sand from his gourd made his sand much quicker but that seemed to play right into Deidera's hands as he was easily able to evade his attacks with a grin on his face.

The ex-Iwa shinobi flew away from his sand in fast speeds, zigzagging and changing directions randomly as he completely avoided entrapment.

If this battle was on the ground, it would have been over by now but as it turned Deidera could fly, fast as hell.

'A different strategy then'

Gaara had also learned from his battle with Naruto that while giving into the Shukaku made him stronger, he sacrificed control and much of the things that made him formidable to begin with. Losing to Naruto showed him that the tradeoff wasn't worth it and completely abandoned using his tiny Shukaku form, learning to do some of the techniques himself without having to tap into the bijuu chakra.

With a series of hand-seals the sand morphed itself into a head of Shukaku that sucked in wind hard, giving off a whistling, hissing sound as a pressurized ball of air formed at the mouth of the construct, " **Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet!"**

Deidera saw it coming and guided his clay bird was to avoid it when it shot at them in the air, ' A nice change of pace. Atleast he can do more with his sand than I had initially thought.'

It wasn't over though. Gaara kneaded more chakra through his sand that began to gather at the Shukaku mouth for another compressed air bullet and began shooting them off, one after another with only enough lag-time in between them to build up more for a new shot.

He could see how much force those large balls of wind had within them. If they made contact with anything, whatever they hit just wasn't going to exist in the same state any longer.

A quick decision later, Deidera guided his bird to fly straight to the kage while still dodging the sand+ wind combo, he flew right at the Kazekage faster than most high-level ninjas could even move and would have scared the hell out of most people, but Gaara was not most people.

Gaara's sand formed a thick half dome right in front of his body as Deidera jumped off of his bird as it crushed into the sand wall going off in an explosion catching Gaara in it.

Deidera was almost worried that the explosion was too much for the jinchurikki to take but then narrowed his eyes when the redhead then proceeded to crumble into sand, revealing to be a Sand Clone.

"I have you now." Gaara commented, appearing behind the art lover who had created another clay bird when he jumped off the first one.

'Well…' Deidera thought as he turned Gaara's way and saw a horrifying amount of sand rising up from the ground like waterfalls, only this one the sand was rising up instead of going down. It just kept coming. When had he put together the time to even do such a thing?

"You're quite skilled, that's to be expected from a kage, Hn"

Of course, When he'd been firing off shots with the Shukaku's head, Deidera had been flying around to avoid them for over a minute. But was that really enough time to gather up enough sand to make this big jutsu? Good Lord. There wasn't any way around that.

"I can make so much more. As much as I need." Gaara said as he stood elevated off of the ground by a sand platform while he started manipulating the rest underneath him Deidera's way with multiple hand-seals that started and ended with him clapping his hands, "This is why I am known as Sabaku no Gaara in Sunagakure. Gaara of the Sand **. Quicksand Waterfall Flow**!"

And with that, Gaara sent every bit of it forward. Deidera was not going to avoid anything like this. There was no way. Even looking at him from where he was standing, Gaara knew as much. He did his best to fly away, but it caught up to him and engulfed him entirely, covering over him and burying him entirely.

"Now die for me **Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral**!" Dropping down from his platform, Gaara slammed his hands onto the ground and let out a shockwave that sent ripples all throughout a good part of the desert.

And that was that.

But then why couldn't he feel a body down there as his sifted through the sand to confirm his kill.

The one tail jinchurikki's eyes widen when the real Deidera's head emerged from the ground, some distance away from him. He jumped onto a crane and flew upwards giving him a savage grin.

"You're not the only one who can make clones yeah" the blonde man said making one handsign before shouting out, "but now you're standing on my land mines, Katsu!"

'Boom!'

The resulting explosion went directly beneath Gaara's feet kicking up a lot of smoke and sand in the process.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed Gaara inside a semi-closed ball of sand effectively protecting him from the underground explosion.

Though when Gaara brought his eyes back to Deidera, he was surprised to see the mad bomber grinning instead of showing frustration that his jutsu had just failed.

"You have a very good defense, yeah" the blonde praised, "but… You've just made a big mistake" he said making an all too familiar handsign

Gaara wondered what that meant, but immediately understood as small clay creatures emerged from the sand-ball protecting him. He wasn't given any time to escape before they all exploded right in his face.

'Boom!'

When the smoke cleared, it showed a pissed Kazekage with half of his face and left hands taking the form of Shukaku. He growled loudly in pain and anger and it doubled when he saw Sasori killing his people with what he could only assume to be a puppet of Suna's past kage.

And he moved to help his fellow jinchurikki causing Deidera to chase after him now reversing their earlier role of cat and mouse.

 **Meanwhile**

Sasori decided not to waste any time and made the Kazekage fly forward, his wooden limbs crackling in the air.

One of the jounin launched an exploding note at the flying puppet with a short fuse forward but the Kazekage puppet glided to the right easily and extended his arm forward. Joints and incisions in his arm popped open revealing several series on intricate seals on flaps of his arms. The seals glowed for a moment before bursting forth with hundreds of hands.

Fu used her bijuu enhanced speed as she along with the remaining four jounin tried to stay as far away from the puppet as possible. They run, ducked, dodged and tried with all their might to avoid being caught by the extending limbs.

Their job got even harder when the puppet's arms disconnected from the elbows and started shooting out hundreds upon hundreds of senbon.

Fu called upon Chomei's wings still in chakra cloak state and flew high completely avoiding all of the senbon but her comrades weren't able to avoid as three of the jounin were made into a human pincushion leaving only the fan wielding shinobi who used his wind techniques to deflect them and used the fan itself for protection.

"Four down, one more to go" Sasori said finding himself impressed that Suna shinobi would last long against him and even force him to use the Kazekage. He thought of releasing his poison mist but decided against it as it wouldn't do much in such an open space.

Seeing more of her teammates dies like that, Fu let a feral growl as she let more of the Chomei's chakra up to three's tails worth.

The puppet responded by letting out Iron Sand from its mouth that began to shape spikes in the air.

Iron rods shot forward at her as Fu darted forward. An Iron rod shot down right at her chest only to be batted away like a fly by one of her flailing red chakra tails. Iron rose out of the ground causing Fu to leap and launch an arm forward with a roar. The arm extended and flew right at Sasori who side stepped with wide eyes. That was the first time he had seen of any chakra manipulation such as that.

Fu gave another leap causing the Kazekage puppet to fall back to protect Sasori with a giant Iron shield that the jinchurikki collided with.

The fact that the girl was batting away Iron rods annoyed him to no end, in addition to that any time anyone clawed at his wall of Iron any other human would be paralyzed. However, this damn girl could claw, scratch, dry hump the wall for all she cared and would not be effected by the poisons of the wall made of his Iron Sand.

Being a jinchurikki was just an unfair advantage.

Nevertheless, this battle was his for the taking, he would have been in much more trouble had the jinchurikki being able to fully control her bijuu but seeing her straggle to maintain her three tails state alleviated Sasori's concern of facing a perfect jinchurikki.

A sizeable part of Sasori's wall broke apart as it took the shape of small shiruken, kunai and spear. A little flick of the wrist was all it took to send the small sand weapons hurtling towards Fu intent on piercing her though before they could their target, the desert sand rose up and clashed with the iron sand effectively ending the attack.

Sasori didn't have to guess who responsible as Gaara appeared by Fu's side giving him a death glare.

"Are you alright?" he asked seeing how her face was flinching from the bijuu chakra currently surrounding her.

"Well I'm not dead yet" Fu replied as the fan wielding jounin joined them his fan practically torn to shreds with Sasori's senbon and his clothes showing spots of blood.

"Kazekage-sama" the man said momentarily shocked with Gaara's new look. The last time he had seen him like that was when he was still terrorizing the village.

"You should go back to the village" Gaara said his voice a mix of man and beast. He pointed at the jounin, "Saduko, if the battle carries on like this, it will not end well for us, go back and request for backup while I hold them, request for granny Chiyo, she may be past her prime but she still remains the best puppet master in the village at the moment. Fu I can't risk you being caught by these guys, I underestimated them but you shouldn't pay the price for my mistake. If Akatsuki manages to catch us both, it will not only be disastrous for our respective villages but for the entire elemental nations as well. I thank you for risking your life to fight with for my village and I but-

"But these guys are after me too" the seven tails retorted. "This may not be my village but you are my friend and a fellow jinchurikki. I'm not leaving" she finished defiantly

"You can't say here either don't you get it! Fu you-

"A few weeks ago Naruto-kun risked his life to save mine and tonight one of your own jounin gave up his life for me, they both did it because they saw me as a comrade and friend, that's the first time anyone has ever done that for me. For the first time I have people that care and are willing to die for me, If I can't do the same for those I care about then Taki was right about me all along; I'm just a monster"

"Well, isn't this sweet, there's nothing quite like a precious bond between two hurt souls eh Sasori-dono" Deidera said as he joined Sasori's side. The mad bomber quickly created another clay bird that Sasori jumped on seeing as the Kazekage could easily use the sand below them to crush him.

"Yes, but unfortunately for them, this will be more like a fatal attraction than anything else"

Gaara's sand grabbed hold of Saduko and flung towards the village hoping he lands safely enough so that he relays his order.

"Alright Fu, you want to remain and fight? Fine but you better not die"

The girl merely nodded her head as she took off charging at Deidera who once again took off initiating another game of cat and mouse leaving Suna's past and future in a standoff.

"As Kazekage, I won't allow myself to lose again." said Gaara as he faced down the legendary Akatsuki member who looked more like a pretty boy his own age than an experienced war hero turned criminal.

"I've heard it all before." he responded in a soft voice. "The Third said something similar before I killed him. And I imagine that your own father would have done the same had I got to him faster than Orochimaru."

Gaara's ringed eyes narrowed at the Akatsuki member's words. "What interest do you have in the Kazekage?"

"I am Sasori of the Red Sand, famed puppeteer of the village you now rule over. I am the killer of the Third Kazekage, who has joined my collection." Sasori gave the jinchurikki a disarming smile that would have surely fooled had he no idea of who the puppeteer was. "I had plans to add the Fourth Kazekage to my collection, but the man decided to foolishly trust in a snake and paid for it dearly. No use crying about it now, you will be my second Kazekage."

Gaara's sand moved instinctively to stop the barrage of senbon that emerged from Sasori's mouth. The sand became so saturated with senbon that by the end of the bombardment, the needles were bouncing off of themselves rather than being caught in the sand. One large pulse of the wall of sand sent the senbon hurtling back at Sasori, albeit with a much lower standard of accuracy. The Akatsuki member simply fired more senbon from the Kazekage's many arms that cancelled each other out with the ones sent his way.

"For your crimes against the Village Hidden in the Sand, I, the Fifth Kazekage, will be your executioner." With that said, Gaara's sand shot forward in a massive wave as the Kazekage rose his arms as if beckoning it forth. Sasori was many things, but puppeteers were not very mobile as a general rule of thumb, and there was no way he could simply avoid the enormous wave of sand even if he had placed more effort into the art of dodging.

He had to remember to thank Deidera for providing him with a bird that he used to escape the young kage. The man might be annoying with his blasphemous views on 'art' but he would still admit that the mad bomber's techniques were really useful

The tsunami of sand formed a large hand around Sasori, trying to grab the puppeteer but once again, Deidera's creation proved to be the difference between life and death.

Seeing as pursuing the Akatsuki member wasn't achieving anything, Gaara called off his sand, a good portion of his agitated sand whirled around him protectively. This might be his domain but both Sasori and Deidera were proving just why they were tasked with hunting down jinchurikki. He had to handle this carefully, one simple mistake was all it took for Deidera to almost kill him and he had a sneaky suspicion that Sasori could much worse if he let his guard down.

The puppet of the Kazekage snapped open as a compartment on his chest opened to pulse out waves of magnetism.

A wave of Gaara's sand rushed out to meet the attack of the Akatsuki's puppet. Despite the amount of sand towering over all of the combatants, it was met grain for grain by a wave of black sand. The amount was less, though the greater weight of the black allowed it to overwhelm the Fifth Kazekage's Sand Tsunami. " **Black Sand: Ten Foot Spikes**!" Gaara's sand reacted instinctively to the attack from above, and while it didn't stop the massive shapes made of iron sand, his ultimate defense did slow the Third Kazekage's attack long enough for Gaara to jump out of the way.

Gaara realized then that the puppet of his predecessor still had access to his abilities, something that Kankuro had told him was impossible. Sasori brought his hand up in a unique seal to launch his next attack, determined not to give his latest target a moment's peace. " **Thousand Hand Manipulation Force!** " The Third Kazekage raised his left arm and the sides opened menacingly to reveal the seal matrices inscribed on the insides. Near identical copies of the Kazekage's arm burst out of the seals, which in turn opened up to produce even more arms.

Soon a wall of wooden hands was hurtling towards Gaara, who raised his sand to catch the attack. The hands wove around the sand, or attempted to anyway, as a blue veined hand reached out and grabbed a hold of the arms. That didn't stop one of the hands from retracting into the arm to make an opening for a deadly purple mist to rain down on the Kazekage. His sand reacted immediately, but the poison was already around Gaara, who was holding his breath and sensing the world through his sand rather than risk opening his eyes.

Not wanting to open his mouth and utter the name of the technique, Gaara simply sent his sand into a frenzied sandstorm to scour the poison from the air. Cables shot out of the mass of hands as it flew through the air, and wrapped themselves around his shield of sand. The Third Kazekage popped off his arm at the elbow, detaching the mass of wooden hands. Sasori's hands snapped together in another unique seal that did nothing but command his puppet. " **Black Sand: Treasure Drop**!" Gaara looked up at the massive sphere of black sand that began to fall on top of him.

Gaara's sand formed a thick dome over him, as he was currently held in place by his own sand, which refused to move to keep the cables from tightening around him. The black dust weighed down on the sand dome, which held up admirably under the pressure. Gaara used the room around himself and the time his defenses bought to grind the floor beneath him to sand and escape. Still obscured from Sasori, Gaara sensed his sand cave in under the weight and velocity of the golden sphere and crush where he had been.

Bursting from the ground in a flurry of sand, Gaara enveloped the Kazekage puppet in a coffin of sand. Crushing them did little to actually kill them, but it did freeze up all the joints of the puppets, turning them into useless hunks of wood, flesh, and metal. Sasori sighed heavily as his puppet failed to respond. "I suppose this is what I get for letting my guard down."

"Give up now Sasori." said Gaara, glaring at his village's pioneering puppeteer. He had no plans of sparing the murdering puppeteer, but if he stood still, Gaara would have a much easier time killing him. "You're all out of puppets, and I've beaten your most powerful."

"There are actually two puppets I adore more, though they're more sentimental than combat oriented." said Sasori as he slowly unbuttoned his Akatsuki cloak, not turning to face the Kazekage who was glaring at his back. "And the Kazekage wasn't my best work. I don't make puppets, I make art. Art is eternal, and guess what? So am I!"

Sasori wheeled around, and concentrated jets of water shot out of his palms. Gaara's sand was barely fast enough to get between him and the attack, and his ultimate defense began to sag under its own weight as it took on water. The water gave up after a moment, and Gaara got a good look at the monster, for there was no more mistaking Sasori as human, before him.

Sasori had looked unnaturally young, and now it made sense. He stood on a thick cable that emerged from where his stomach was supposed to be as blade like wings fanned out behind him. The lines where his joints held him together were all too apparent without the Akatsuki cloak covering him up. Small gray tubes in his palms still dripped water, and Gaara could see two compartments in his chest, one adorned with the kanji for scorpion painted on in red. "So you see now?" asked Sasori mockingly. "Art is eternal beauty, and my greatest masterpiece… IS ME!"

 **Otogakure**

" **Earth style; Mud swamp**!" A sudden shout rang out through the entire clearing and the ground around Itachi broke down, becoming a virtual swamp of mud. Itachi's began sinking into it, the mud solidifying and Jiraiya – now sporting a large nose and warts – came running in full speed, a ball of blue chakra swirling within his palm. He leapt up and thrust his now webbed hand forth.

" **Rasengan!** " Jiraiya thrust his jutsu as he descended towards the Uchiha. When it threatened to connect at last, the Uchiha burst into a flock of crows and reappeared behind Jiraiya. Itachi threw a right-footed kick that Jiraiya blocked on the turn with his **Rasengan** -wielding hand, causing the technique to dissipate. Jiraiya aimed a fist with his left hand at Itachi's jaw that the black-haired man young man dodged.

Jiraiya smirked.

Then it happened. An invisible force hit Itachi square in the jaw at the same time that Jiraiya's fist missed him by a few inches. Itachi was tossed back, back-flipping before his body hit the ground but Jiraiya was on him again with a roundhouse kick aimed to separate his head from the rest of his body. The former anbu dodged again but was once again hit with the invisible force sending him flying.

Jiraiya watched Itachi stand up and grip his jaw reflectively, narrowed eyes confused. The Uchiha looked at Jiraiya, or rather at the cloak of green chakra that surrounded him and the toads on his shoulders. Was this what Senjutsu was capable of? Itachi made the conclusion that this new chakra allowed Jiraiya some ability to physically extend the reach of his blows.

What hit him hadn't been Jiraiya, it must've been his chakra.

Just like Naruto earlier in the fight.

This certainly changed things. He had hoped to finish this useless battle as fast as possible but Jiraiya was proving too much to handle. From the very beginning the sage had not looked Itachi in the eye thereby making it impossible to use **Tsukuyomi** on him.

He used **Amaterasu** a couple of times but it not only cost him too much chakra but Jiraiya proved once again that experience and resourcefulness could effectively negate talent and badassery.

Why couldn't he just fight an overconfident opponent instead? This would have over in seconds. Even with Orochimaru, the only reason he defeated the snake so embarrassingly easy was that he was too arrogant for his own good, believing that his natural talent was enough to subdue any opponent. Isn't that the main reason he decided to invade the hidden leaf despite knowing that he had no chance of winning.

But unlike the snake sannin, Jiraiya was different. Instead of showing arrogance and showing off, the toad sannin was weary of his opponent, almost to the point of giving them respect. A wide range of jutsu in his arsenal but still choose to draw his opponent into a false sense of security by using the same ones until he saw the right moment to switch styles. This man used his battle experience, losses, failures and victories better than anyone Itachi has ever met.

He was giving Itachi a true battle and if this continued he may be forced to call upon his trump card and he really wanted to avoid that. He could feel his chakra was at roughly 30% and he knew that Jiraiya wouldn't be defeated by any easy means.

He never thought he would ever consider summoning Susanoo for any battle other than his last against his brother but now that hope was drastically fading.

Man this battle was taking it out of him, and the fact that it achieved nothing for him only made him hate it more. If it wasn't for the fact that he was sure that Madara was keeping an eye on him, he would have mostly likely left this scene.

Itachi almost frowned disapproving at the people reading this with a frown on their face thinking he was some demigod who could 'one-shot' any opponent he could ever face. He wondered if there was ever a time he had used Shisui's eye on them to give them those beliefs.

For only a fraction of a second, the Uchiha's eyes glanced towards them speaking in a whisper only they could hear.

"I cannot defeat Madara" he said hoping that settled a lifelong senseless debate.

"Give it up, Itachi." Jiraiya stated. "There's no need to continue fighting"

Of course there was no need for fighting! there was never any need for fighting! He wanted to scream that out loud but instead spoke in monotone voice that made Jiraiya feel like slapping himself.

"Unfortunately, there is. You're a rather persistent thorn to Akatsuki so you need to eliminated. Naruto is also needed to further Akatsuki's goals"

"For what? Why do you need the jinchurikki so much? why hunt them down? What is Akatsuki trying to achieve?" the sannin asked a furry of questions hoping to finally get something about the elusive criminal organization

"I'm not at liberty to answer any of those questions Jiraiya-sama." Itachi replied with a small frown as he realized that he too had no idea just what the Akatsuki were really planning.

Pain and Madara had once spoken of peace but they never really explained what they meant by it.

"I see" the sannin sighed "I guess you leave me no choice then"

Jiraiya appeared in front of Itachi aimed for a punch in the gut the Uchiha choose to wisely avoid him completely, the Uchiha leapt into the air and Jiraiya followed with a **rasengan** in hand. In only a fraction of a minute, the uchiha broke apart into a flock of crows and appeared behind Jiraiya sticking a fire coated kunai in his back. When it connected Itachi frowned realizing that it was only a clone as Jiraiya wouldn't be caught that easily.

he was proved right when Jiraiya appeared a good distance above him holding another **rasengan** in his hand and the blue **Rasengan** became pitch black with a fiery aura around it. Jiraiya's hand was clearly burning up just from being near such powerful chakra. "Take this! **Hellfire Rasengan!"**

Jiraiya wanted to drive the destructive jutsu into the Uchiha sending him back to the ground with it resulting in a pillar of fire that stretched into the sky, incinerating everything in a half mile radius resulting in the instant death of Itachi.

A form of poetic justice for what he did to his arm.

And that would have happened, if not for a large, orange outline of chakra forming around Itachi. Within it, a transparent skeleton began to form around him, and then muscle, and a humanoid being with glowing yellow eyes and an intimidating face.

The **hellfire rasengan** was Jiraiya's strongest jutsu, his coup de grace. A jutsu he would always rely on to get the job done when all else failed.

And words failed to come out from his mouth as he just saw it completely fail against the Uchiha as it hit an ethereal round shield wielded by the Susanoo's left arm.

Jiraiya along with the two toads on his shoulders couldn't hide their shock seeing how the sannin's jutsu didn't even crack the shield, not a single scratch.

What kind of monster were they fighting?

"Such a terrifying opponent" Shima spoke voicing everyone's thoughts

 _Yeah, no shit granny_.

Damn, this was Hanzo all over again.

The sannin unconsciously took a step back, his expression conveying something he had never thought he would ever experience since his battle with Hanzo.

Defeat.

For the first time in a very long time, the resonating feeling of hopelessness was creeping in. his best attack had just failed miserably and it seemed like his opponent was still pulling jutsu out of his ass.

He found out about the **Tsukuyomi** from Kakashi and how Itachi is able to cast it and had done well in completely avoiding the genjutsu being cast on him and he was fast enough to avoid being hit by the black flames again, but now this?

He thought **Amaterasu** was unfair, but this?

He wanted to scream out, "Come on Kishimoto! seriously?" in frustration, because honestly, how the hell could someone, anyone ever hope to win against this?

Jiraiya's heart sank deeper when he realized that Itachi was just a pawn to the Akatsuki, if this man with such incredible power was just another soldier in an organization then how much more powerful was the man leading them?

Ever since he had found out about the criminal organization, Jiraiya had spent most of his time investigating them, trying to find out who they were, what their purpose was, how many they were and how they would affect the elemental nations. He used most of his resources into uncovering the mysterious organization…

And now, he had gotten a very good idea about them… Akatsuki were some really really bad motherfuckers.

Whatever they were planning, they had a very good chance of succeeding unless something drastic changed. Now more than ever, Jiraiya wished the elemental nations weren't so focused on murdering one another and saw the real enemy that was knocking on their door.

He shuddered to think just how much more powerful they would be if they got the bijuu they were after. Just having the power of the one tails Shukaku in their corner was already a frightening prospect, how worse would it be if they got the nine tails?

The nine tails…

Naruto.

These monsters were targeting his godson, his very last student.

No way in hell he would allow that, he had failed in a lot of things throughout his life but he will not fail to protect his godson. He would mostly likely end up dying in the process but atleast he would have done one thing right.

For Naruto, he had to keep on fighting.

Jiraiya's conviction and determination double when Itachi suddenly fell to his knees, most of his Susanoo dispersing leaving only the skeleton body of chakra surrounding him, the shield disappearing as well. The Uchiha coughed up massive amounts of blood, clutching to his head as he breathed hard.

That's it, this was his chance. It was a now-or-never situation.

" **Sage Art; Big ball Rasengan barrage**!"

 **Meanwhile**

Naruto was in awe at how much chakra Kisame had, he has never met anyone with even half of what the shark loving shinobi had. He too had massive chakra reserves but he always figured that was because of the seal constantly syphoning chakra from the Kyuubi and because he was an Uzumaki but even then, he would still bet that Kisame had more chakra than him in his base form.

The fact that he could create this large dome of water and not show any chakra exhaustion just reinforced his thought.

His eyes went to Gamakichi who was a good distance away from him but still safe.

"Now then let us begin shall we" Kisame said drawing blood and weaving through handsigns, " **Summoning jutsu**!" he called calling force another shark that sped after Gamakichi who took out his blade ready to defend himself.

Naruto was about to swim closer to his toad summon but halted when Kisame swam at him faster than what should have been possible for any human… then again this man wasn't exactly human.

Once again, the blonde had to be thankful to Fukasaku for teaching him Senjutsu which greatly increased his speed, and in hindsight his swimming speed.

The blond swam the opposite direction, trying with all his might to avoid the barreling shark man. He achieved little success as the rogue shinobi still caught up to him but then still used his superior reaction speed to duck or dodge when Kisame was about to bulldoze him.

Naruto spared a second to see how his summon was faring and was relieved when he saw Gamakichi defending himself, swinging his ninjato (as well as he could, considering that this was in water) at the attacking shark summon. The shark did get a few hits in but all in all the toad was defending itself well.

He was about to go help him but Kisame once again proved a pain in the ass when he sped through more hand signs, "Oh no you don't, your battle is with me boy"

" **Water style; Five hungry sharks**!"

Five more sharks were created, these ones even faster than Kisame himself, at him with the intent to devour.

" **Sealing art; impregnable ice wall!"**

Naruto called out clapping his hands once, immediately a glass-like orange barrier was erected all around him. The barrier wasn't big or imposing in any way but it covered Naruto's body quiet well and despite the vulnerable appearance it had, it was actually stronger than steel. He had Haku to thank for giving an idea for this jutsu.

The ferocious water sharks came at him with blinding speed but bounced off the barrier upon impact. That didn't seem to deter them though as they continued their assault on the barrier but it still held firm, not showing even a single crack. One by one, all the tried to break through without any success.

"Itachi-san was right…" Kisame said using a single handsign to command his sharks to halt their attack. "…You've become quiet the formidable foe, not many people can last this long against me inside this jutsu. But…" the shark-man took his eyes to Gamakichi who was still struggling against his shark summon giving the toad a predatory grin. "…the same can't be said for your toad friend!" he said as he along with his five sharks suddenly swam after the toad.

'Shit'

Naruto was forced to dispel the barrier and took off to help his friend, he soon realized that he had just played into Kisame's hands as the criminal shinobi made an abrupt U-turn coming back after him.

" **Shadow clone jutsu** "

He created countless doppelgangers but the jutsu was made irrelevant when Kisame created many water clones as well cancelling the shadow clone jutsu perfectly. After the smoke of dispelled clones had cleared, the five sharks came at him again and once again, he thankful for sage mode as he landed a brutal punch on the one that reached him first. When the second one reached, he created a **rasengan** nailing it in the mouth and executed an awkward (considering this was inside a large dome of water) roundhouse kick to the third shark. Two handsigns later and Naruto defeated the fourth and fifth shark with a simultaneous " **wind** **bullet** "piercing their skulls.

Kisame took advantage of the blonde's distraction that his sharks had afforded him by quickly bulldozing over Naruto. He came so fast even with his superior sensing abilities and enhanced reaction, the blonde couldn't do much to prevent it.

The former hidden mist shinobi harshly pressed the attack as he went through him again sending him backwards. Again and again, the shark-man bulldozed over Naruto targeting the head and chest causing some blood to leak out of the blond.

Not only was the Akatsuki member seriously hurting Naruto but he was stealing his chakra every time he made contact with him.

" **How pitiful… so this is what the great sage can do?"** Naruto heard the unmistakable voice of the kyubi as he was getting run over by Kisame.

"Shut up!" he mentally growled back at the legendary chakra construct.

" **I could always give you some of my chakra you know… go ahead, lets show him just how powerful we can be** "

"I said shut up!" using all his anger, frustration and annoyance to counter with a devastating uppercut to Kisame sending the man back with so much force that it temporarily disoriented him.

A quick look at Gamakichi later, Naruto confirmed that the toad had just managed to defeat the shark summon with boiling oil jutsu.

That actually gave him an idea, something so obvious that he felt stupid for not utilizing it earlier. The blonde smoothly weaved through handsigns and executed his jutsu before Kisame had a chance to come at him again.

" **Wind style; freezing winds**!"

" **Sage art; Boiling Oil!"**

he said adding so much wind to the water to the point where it was turning to ice. The blonde then added plenty of scolding oil from Mt. Myoboku in the icy waters, the oil was so thick and plenty that it stuck to the Kisame, Gamakichi and Naruto himself burning them a bit but he still paid it no mind. He looked at his toad summon who nodded understanding what he wanted to do.

Naruto stood on top of Gamakichi and both summon and summoner expertly weaved through handsigns as an oil covered Kisame resumed his charge.

" **Fire style; toad flame bullet!"**

 **"Reverse summoning**!"

Just as soon as Gamakichi released the huge grand fireball, Naruto was quick to reverse summon them back to the land of the toads leaving Kisame to suffer the results of boiling oil and ice alone.

"Gaaahh!"

Kisame now hated fire more than anything else. This would mark the second time that it had screwed him over and cooked him alive. Skin burned heavily, body covered in oil and ice that was surprisingly reacting rather volatile with the flames, it was boiling him so much that he could feel his hard skin melting off him as he quickly dispelled his water jutsu.

Kisame crawled across the ground gritting his teeth in fury as he tried to get back up on his feet shakily. "I'm going to cut your arms and your legs off brat!" He bellowed, pushing himself up, the damage was so much that even Samehada was failing to heal him despite the large amounts of chakra it had absorbed.

"You know what… fuck leaving you alive, I'm gonna cut you up piece by piece you hear me!" he growled finally managing to stand up albeit barely, at this point he was struggling just to stay conscious.

Kisame looked up to where Samehada was sensing the blonde, he expected to find him grinning or preparing some jutsu to finish him off, though he saw the last thing that he would ever expect to see; his eyes were open but it was completely dark only showing golden yellow eyes with bar like pupils. That was all he saw, the blonde's eye. Kisame tried to shake his head to clear his vision but still nothing changed. He became confused when suddenly, one of two eyes started rotating, first slowly then fast enough to rival the rotating tomeos of the sharingan.

Then the darkness faded and he saw that he was surrounded by four large toads, wearing what would be a comical getup in any other situation. Each told either had a flute or drum with them. Further in front of the toads were two small, old looking toads, one male and another female, both cleared their throats and started singing really high notes that made Kisame's ears bleed and the four large toads backed them up with their own musical instruments resulting in a really weird, really annoying song. **The toad confrontation chant**. And what was worse was that they were using chakra to complement their ridiculous song.

Kisame held his ears in pain, gritting his teeth, this was genjutsu, it had to be. That was the only possible explanation for this. Though he couldn't help but wonder just how it was possible, from what he knew Jinchurikki aren't supposed to use genjutsu. Their bijuu didn't allow them to master chakra control so well that they could use the illusionary arts. Hell, it was common knowledge that jinchurikki and genjutsu did not mix well.

Kisame disrupted his flow, slowing down his life energy to a trickle before using all he had in one big flare. When he opened his eyes, he found himself still surrounded by the toads.

"How is possible? How the hell are you able to do this" he asked unable to grasp the situation he was in.

"Because I'm a sage bitch!" Naruto shouted as he brutally drove a **rasenshiruken** in Kisame's chest sending him flying to an instant death.

A few minutes later, Naruto sighed a breath of relief when he confirmed Kisame's death as he could no longer feel any chakra coming from the blue man.

"Man, that was quiet intense eh Naruto?" Gamakichi said impressed with his summoners strength, that was the first time the toad had seen a summoner perform the toad confrontation chant and it was just as badass as his father had told him.

"Yeah, thanks for the help Gamakichi" he replied giving the toad a thumbs up.

"No problem, anyway my time is up. See ya later…" the toad spoke before he puffed out of existence.

"Yeah, sure thing"

Naruto sat down on the ground wanting to catch a breather and reflect on his latest battle before a chakra flaring reminded him of another battle taking place a few kilometers away. He grew even wearier when he sensed two more huge chakra signals near the three tails.

He had no idea who these people were but he sure as hell knew that they were no friends of his. Another chakra flare made him look to the direction were Jiraiya was battling Itachi.

'The battle must be fiercer than I thought' he could sense his teachers; Jiraiya, Fukasaku and Shima all in sage mode as well and that was never good.

Naruto stood up and charged his chakra, getting it ready to execute a long distance **wind shunshin**. He then created a **rasengan** and started adding his earth style making the **rasengan** change color to copper, its size twice as that of a normal rasengan but it now looked like a round, hard stone than an actual jutsu.

Satisfied, Naruto executed his wind powered shunshin with jutsu in hand hoping to end this battle quickly before these two shinobi could enter the fray.

 **With Itachi and Jiraiya**

Itachi was really pissed at the moment, this wasn't what he had intended. The plan was to show Jiraiya a bit of the power Akatsuki had at its exposal and leave but somehow, he found himself having a full-fledged battle with the sannin who was proving just why he was a sannin in the first place.

Despite the fact that he was blocking all of Jiraiya's high powered attacks with the **Yata** **mirror** , the sannin kept coming at him over and over again. He used different strategies, different jutsu, different approaches but still Jiraiya wasn't deterred that he was failing to penetrate his defense.

Itachi himself had tried to use **Amaterasu** on him again, but the sannin always moving making it impossible to hit.

 **Tsukuyomi** was also impossible to cast since the sannin had not stared in his eyes even once.

And using the **Totsuka blade** was out of the question because he wasn't fighting to kill here though with the way things were going, he might as well do it and get it over with.

" **Big ball Hellfire Rasengan**!" the sannin drove another attack his way but once again, his defense held firm.

"Man what the hell is up with that shield of yours?!" Jiraiya screamed out loud in frustration seeing another one of his attacks fail.

Despite it all, this actually got Itachi to give a small smile at the sannin.

"This is my ultimate defense, the **Yata mirror**. No attack could ever pass through with this by my side. I-

The Uchiha once again fell to knees cough up blood, he's chakra was almost at the point of exhaustion and his body was aching as well. Most of his Susanoo including the **Yata mirror** had dispelled as well leaving only the skeleton protecting him. He tried to get back up on shaky legs but then-

" **Rasen-Drill**!" Naruto suddenly appeared above him driving a copper-black **Rasengan** through his Susanoo shattering the remaining skeleton with extreme ease but before he could drive the Jutsu into his chest, a masked man appeared sucking Itachi in what appeared to be a vortex and then made himself intangible.

Naruto was shocked out of his wits seeing how he suddenly passed through this mysterious masked man thereby driving his jutsu to the ground creating the biggest crater any jutsu has ever created.

The **Rasen-Drill** might be small and not flashy but it was just as destructive as the **rasenshiruken** because while the **Rasenshiruken** severely damaged the body on acellular level attacking the chakra circulatory system, the **Rasen-Dril** l wreaked its way through a target. It had the force of three wrecking balls combined into one deadly jutsu that would surely wreck everything in its path.

The masked man whistled impressively looking at the destruction Naruto's jutsu had formed. He made himself intangible again as Jiraiya attacked him with a **big ball Rasengan** only to go through as well.

"Wow! you've gotten quite strong Naruto-kun, how impressive" he said in a childish tone as a plant like creature emerged from the ground standing next to the masked man.

Naruto eyed the man with narrowed eyes wondering who he was and why the Kyuubi was growling at the site of him.

"Who are you?" he asked not a making a move but still on guard

"Me? I'm nobody really, just a random guy trying to look out from my comrades ya know" he replied in a way that made Naruto remember his first days as a gennin

"You're Akatsuki" Jiraiya said entering the conversation, "What do you want with the tailed beasts? What is your purpose?"

"Our purpose? Well… I just you could say that we want peace"

Peace? Seriously?

"Are you stupid? What sort of peace can be achieved by hunting down jinchurikki?"

"The good everlasting kind" the man's voice suddenly changed to one that was commanding and demanded respect whether you wanted to give it or not.

Naruto was rather surprised by how the Kyuubi was reacting to this man's presence, his stomach was even heating up as the seal tried to hold back the clearly infuriated creature.

"Have you gotten Kisame's body?" the masked man asked the plant like creature to which it nodded speaking in what heard like two voices.

"Yes, Naruto did quite a number on him though, he was barely recognizable"

"I see…" the masked man responded as a vortex appeared sucking him in while the plant creature was swallowed by the ground. "… we will meet again Naruto Uzumaki. Oh and by the way… do say hi to my old friend the Kyuubi for me."

And with that, the man's chakra signal along with his companion completely disappeared reappearing where the three tail was located then once again disappearing along with it.

Jiraiya was left frowning at what just transpired, wondering just how many dangerous shinobi were remaining in the criminal group. His frown deepened when he suddenly heard Itachi's voice speaking to him. He knew that Itachi was no longer with them seeing as he couldn't sense him but his voice was too clear to ignore.

"Trouble approaches from where the land cries" it said

 **Suna**

" **Hiding in Scale Powder!"** A stream of blinding powder was propelled out of Fu's mouth, effectively blinding her opponent as the jinchurikki of the Seven Tails made her attack using her chakra arms to grab the mad bomber and squish his head to oblivion only for the man to suddenly explode.

"Clone" Fu said as she put on a burst of speed to get further away from the sent her way from above. The jinchurikki managed to escape the resounding explosion and growl when she saw Deidera looking at her with a smile.

She was about to resume her chase when Deidera suddenly dropped lots and lots of small animated **C1** bombs towards her and it would have surely bombed her to shreds except the Seven Tails had one thing going for it though, and that was speed and maneuverability. Fu's beating wings enabled her to avoid being trapped by the small bombs, and Fu realized that she wouldn't be able to simply get lucky and escape this time. Wincing as she drew on more of her Tailed Beast's chakra, crying out in pain as more and more of Chomei's power leaked out.

The small bombs surrounded her and went off. To seal the deal, Deidera sent a big eagle into the smoke, when it went Deidera was surprised to see that it had done no harm on her whatsoever. The smoke cleared to reveal that Fu had become obscured by a thick blue armor, reminiscent of the beetle sealed inside her. It was one thing to draw on a Tailed Beast's chakra, but to cover your entire body in it was a burning experience comparable only to being burned alive forever. Fu had no illusions that she could keep up her armor indefinitely, but it was infinitely better than exploding.

"You're hard to kill yeah, gets that's to be expected from jinchurikki" the mad bomber said

"You can throw in as many of your bombs as you like, you will never be able to penetrate my armor, the end result will still be me killing you." Fu growled back

"Yeah? I wonder…" Deidera then sent his eyes towards Gaara who was in another battle against Sasori. Deidera then gave Fu a feral grin flying over to Sasori and Gaara whilst shouting, "Lets test that theory out shall we?"

Once again Fuu gave chase intent of ripping the blonde bomber to shreds but then her eyes went wide when she saw just what Deidera was about to do.

At that moment, Fuu couldn't give a proper response of what she did next, she could say that she forgot that Gaara had a perfect defense or she could say that she was not thinking straight due to the bijuu's chakra but the truth is… her heart and body just moved on their own.

 **With Gaara**

Sasori felt pretty good with himself for manipulating the Kazekage into the perfect position to use his Red Army, but then he realized that the Kazekage gained just as impressive of an advantage. As it turned out, the wide open space of the desert that allowed Sasori's entire collection to run wild also gave Gaara more room to manipulate his sand. So now Sasori was looking up at the red headed leader of the Village Hidden in the Sand who was now flying. And while Sasori had wings on his puppet body, they were purely decorative. Well, not decorative per se, but they were pretty useless when it came to actual flight so he had to think again for that little help.

Not to mention that the Kazekage's Ultimate Defense remained as effective at blocking poison coated weapons as before. Sasori's water jets were a bit more effective, as getting the sand wet had the added effect of slowing it down, but by this point the Kazekage had more than enough sand standing by that some of it getting wet wasn't a real issue. Turning the sand to glass with his flamethrowers was little more effective, as it rendered the sand unusable, but Sasori had a limited amount of oil to ignite and throw at his enemies.

Which left him with the brute force tactic of throwing everything but a toilet at his opponents from over a hundred directions at once after covering it in poison.

Just as the master puppeteer began to think about making a Plan B in case his blitzkrieg of puppets failed, the bird that Sasori was on suddenly flew high away from Gaara as one of Deidera's huge **C3** bombs dropped above Gaara. Before the half transformed Kazekage could do anything to defend himself, Fu suddenly appeared above him using her chakra cloak to completely provide cover for him.

'BOOM!'

The resounding explosion sent ripples through the desert, no doubt the whole of Suna had heard that.

When the smoke cleared, Gaara's heart dropped when he saw Deidera's bird carrying a heavily bleeding, unconscious Fu in its mouth.

"You bastards…" he didn't realize it then but he was summoning his bijuu chakra as well, massive amounts of sand reacting to his call as it rose. "…I'm gonna kill you"

Deidera was quick to respond as he dropped another **C3** bomb near the Kazekage, this one even bigger than the first.

'BOOM!'

The blast echoed throughout the desert creating so much smoke and kicking up sand in its wake.

When it cleared, it still showed a visibly unharmed Gaara, well he was still half transformed but still unharmed from the explosion as a lot of sand had surrounded him completely.

"Man, I guess the term 'perfect defense' wasn't just a moniker eh Sasori-dono" Deidera said as looked on at the incensed redhead kage.

"So it seems…" Sasori paused when he saw a couple of Suna shinobi including his grandmother approaching them from far away." It seems we have a few more visitors." He said

"What are we going to do yeah?"

"You can drop one of your bombs on them before they reach here"

"Uh… I can't… I'm kinda out of clay."

The mad bomber gave a nervous laugh as his partner glared at him, obviously annoyed with his stupidity.

"I told you to carry enough clay"

"Give me a break yeah, nobody expected to find two jinchurikki here, Hn." The blonde said defending himself.

"(sigh) well the Kazekage has destroyed a lot of my puppets as well, we won't win this fight if we choose to stay. At least we have one so there is some success here. Let us leave Deidera."

As the two criminals started to retreat with Fuu, more and more sand rose and rose up into the biggest sandstorm ever seen threatening to swallow them all.

Deidera was quick to instruct his two birds to move faster so as to avoid the destructive sand jutsu.

"You're not going anywhere **, Desert sandstorm**!" Gaara shouted bring his hands together before pointing them at the two criminals.

The sand pushed forward, approaching the retreating Akatsuki members as fast as it could, swallowing up everything in its path. The clay birds did well to avoid been swallowed up the sandstorm but Deidera was unlucky as he got the whole of his left arm caught by some sand.

" **Sand coffin**!"

Gaara growled brutally destroying the arm with his sand, though Deidera wasn't deterred much as he continued guiding the birds to fly away from the desert.

 **End Chapter**

 **Well that was quiet a long chapter, I was tempted to break it into two but then reconsidered. I'm new at writing battle scenes but I hope this didn't disappoint much.**

 **Another thing; a lot of people are complaining that I've made the villains more powerful than they are in canon, but that is not the case. Sasuke Did defeat Kakuzu yes, but keep in mind that this Kakuzu only had one heart and was running out of chakra, surely Hebi-Sasuke is atleast strong enough to defeat him in those conditions right?**

 **Another one that perhaps got lost in translation is Kisame absorbing jutsu… he doesn't, Samehada absorbs chakra from a jutsu that's pretty much common knowledge.**

 **And his Naruto is NOT weaker than his opponents, he has all power of a toad sage but just doesn't have the experience to back it up. It's kinda like how Juubito, with all his power was still struggling Sasuke and Naruto or how Kaguya was struggling to kill Naruto and Sasuke despite the fact that she hard all the power in the world, or even how Frieza was still giving super-saiyan Goku a fight despite the fact that Goku had just been given a power-up while future Trunks just obliterated the same opponent with much ease. Once again, it's not because these guys were weak but they just lacked the experience with their new powers so NO I did not make Kisame (who is a very much underrated character btw), Sasuke or anyone else except Orochimaru stronger.**

 **And with Orochimaru… I've already said why I've given him the power-up.**

 **Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, our feedback is always appreciated.**

 **P.S; F**k you to the guy who told me to go back to Africa.**

 **SARAVAN OUT!**


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